This books argues that Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) may help address the growing dissatisfaction among the American electorate with issues of representation. Voters increasingly express dissatisfaction with who is representing them, how, and how they came to be their representative. Possibly in response, RCV has been steadily (re)adopted throughout the country over the course of the last two decades in place of the traditional plurality voting election method. This growing RCV movement in the United States raises the question as to whether we can experience better representation through RCV results than through plurality elections.

Through use of Hannah Pitkin’s four-part typology of representation, this book examines the representativeness of RCV through use of the ranking mechanism. The authors do so by analyzing RCV history, ballot access, RCV implementation, ranking and representation, and reform to better understand the connections between RCV and representation.Ultimately, this analysis informs RCV implementation in cities seeking to adopt or improve RCV elections in ongoing efforts to better US democracy.

Jay Wendland is the chair of the History & Political Science Department and Professor of Political Science at Daemen University in Amherst, NY, USA. He is the author of Campaigns That Matter (2017) and The Constant Two Plan (2024).

Erin Carman is Associate Professor of Social Work at Daemen University in Amherst, NY, USA, Faculty Researcher with the Institute for Government and Non-Profit Innovation, Training, and Evaluation (IGNITE), and Public Research Policy Fellow with the Partnership for the Public Good.