Instant Runoff Voting

A new poll will launch each month. Get your vote in this month's poll by clicking here.

Below you can see how South Carolinians voted in the August 2023 Poll

Use the interactive bargraph to see how instant runoff voting allows voters to participate in a runoff without having to return to the polls for each round. Instead, their votes are redistributed according to how each voter ranked their candidates on their ballots.

As you can see the elimination of vote splitting allowed us to see who commands the vote of the majority of participants. To learn more about how instant runoff voting works and its many benefits, please visit our Why IRV page.

SPLIT

Instant runoff voting (also known as ranked choice voting) is a simple upgrade to the way that we already vote. By ranking your candidates, you have more voice and more choice in our elections. To learn more, please visit our Why IRV page.

To get this upgrade to our elections, we'll need your support. Please cast your vote for instant runoff voting by signing the petition or contacting your legislators

Instant Runoff Voting

Beginning in August, Better Ballot SC has run Democratic Presidential Primary polls. Below are the results of those polls with the most recent at the bottom. Please note that there is no October poll because there were only two candidates and, therefore, an IRV poll was unnecessary.

Three candidates have filed for the South Carolina Democratic Primary. Click here to take this month's poll.

Below you can see how South Carolinians voted in the August 2023 Poll. Use the interactive bargraph to see how instant runoff voting redistributes votes according to the original ranked ballot after a first choice has been eliminated.

As you can see, even when a candidate commands a majority in the first round, we can still eliminate low vote getters to see how much support the winner truly has. This gives them a clearer mandate to govern. To learn more about how instant runoff voting works and its many benefits, please visit our Why IRV page.

SPLIT

Instant runoff voting (also known as ranked choice voting) is a simple upgrade to the way that we already vote. By ranking your candidates, you have more voice and more choice in our elections. To learn more, please visit our Why IRV page.

To get this upgrade to our elections, we'll need your support. Please cast your vote for instant runoff voting by signing the petition or contacting your legislators

Interested in calling instead?

Click here to find out who your legislators are and for contact information.

If you would like to call, here is a sample message:

SC House of Representatives

"

My name is _____ and I would like you to cosponsor H.4022. I am a part of a coalition of organizations representing thousands of South Carolinians. Giving municipalities the option to use instant runoff voting in their elections will benefit both the voters and the government. It will save time and money. It minimizes strategic voting and allows voters to express their will without compromising their values. It also protects against vote splitting by allowing voters to support all candidates who align with their views, and because of that, allows parties to build their bench. Additionally, it discourages negative campaigning, allowing candidates to focus on policy and not defense. Finally, it’s how our overseas absentee voters can vote. All South Carolinians should have this option for their municipalities.

For all of these reasons and more, please cosponsor H.4022.

"

SC Senate

"

My name is _____ and I would like you to introduce a companion bill to H.4022. I am a part of a coalition of organizations representing thousands of South Carolinians. Giving municipalities the option to use instant runoff voting in their elections will benefit both the voters and the government. It will save time and money. It minimizes strategic voting and allows voters to express their will without compromising their values. It also protects against vote splitting by allowing voters to support all candidates who align with their views, and because of that, allows parties to build their bench. Additionally, it discourages negative campaigning, allowing candidates to focus on policy and not defense. Finally, it’s how our overseas absentee voters can vote. All South Carolinians should have this option for their municipalities.

For all of these reasons and more, please cosponsor H.4022.

"

If you would like to set up a meeting with your representative, we would be happy to help you. Email us at [email protected]

The best way to learn is by doing and here is a great way to see just how easy it is to vote using instant runoff voting.

Are you planning on voting in the Presidential Primary? Great! Check out these SC polls. Vote in the poll that you plan to vote in come February

Republican Presidential Primary

Democratic Presidential Primary Poll

Libertarian Presidential Primary

SPLIT

To learn more about this great electoral reform, visit our Why IRV page

To view the results of previous months check out these links:

Republican Primary Poll Results

Democratic Primary Poll Results

Click the links below to see the many letters to the editor and opinion pieces that IRV supporters have had published in local newspapers

Editorial: The Post and Courier

November 25, 2023, "A change North Charleston needs to make" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-a-change-north-charleston-needs-to-make/article_66447efa-8971-11ee-af14-8bb93b3cdc9f.html

Editorial: The Post and Courier

November 13, 2023, "North Charleston averted an electoral disaster, or did it?" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-north-charleston-averted-an-electoral-disaster-or-did-it/article_30132ce0-7e73-11ee-9d15-fb9d2fcd5b7b.html

Our View: Charleston City Paper

November 10, 2023, "Elections show need for new voting process" https://charlestoncitypaper.com/2023/11/10/our-view-elections-show-need-for-new-voting-process/

Opinion: The Post and Courier

August 19, 2023, "Haley-Scott-Youngkin argument should prompt change in SC primary rules" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-haley-scott-youngkin-argument-should-prompt-change-in-sc-primary-rules/article_0e61aac0-3bae-11ee-8070-3f7efae1ed7e.html

My Turn: The Statehouse Report

August 18, 2023, "Instant runoff voting could fix broken election system" https://www.statehousereport.com/2023/08/18/my-turn-instant-runoff-voting-could-fix-broken-election-system/

Commentary: The Post and Courier

August 15, 2023, "Ranked-choice primary would increase odds of Haley or Scott win" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/commentary-ranked-choice-primary-would-increase-odds-of-haley-or-scott-win/article_4311ecb0-3971-11ee-9406-b3e8a9caf425.html

Opinion: The Post and Courier

August 4, 2023, "When fewer candidates actually give voters a clearer choice" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-when-fewer-candidates-actually-gives-voters-a-clearer-choice/article_5d98b52a-2fb5-11ee-a54d-0f1c81068dad.html

Letter to the Editor: The Post and Courier

June 8, 2023, "Ranked choice voting would force candidates to campaign in all states" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letters-ranked-choice-voting-would-force-candidates-to-campaign-in-all-states/article_189c6ff6-f41a-11ed-be0e-57383319132d.html

Opinion: The Post and Courier

April 17, 2023, "SC House has time to fix small election glitch this year, maybe a larger one too" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-sc-house-has-time-to-fix-small-election-glitch-this-year-maybe-larger-one/article_1129bb6a-dd2d-11ed-ba81-7f3cf520b800.html

Opinion: The Post and Courier

April 15, 2023, "North Charleston must fix its flawed city elections while it still can" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-north-charleston-must-fix-its-flawed-city-elections-while-it-still-can/article_c1f03680-d9fa-11ed-9a07-5f27c39d8264.html

Letter to the Editor: The Post and Courier

Mar 21, 2023, "Support instant runoff for municipal elections in SC" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letters-support-instant-runoff-for-municipal-elections-in-sc/article_598a7ea0-b940-11ed-97bf-dbf95e736f20.html

Letter to the Editor: The Sun News

Mar 14, 2023, "Simplify Elections" https://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article272982180.html

Letter to the Editor: The Times and Democrat

Mar 9, 2023, "Ranked voting vs runoff" https://thetandd.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article_0655db9d-6e02-5c18-bc91-f1990d41a902.html

Opinion: Post and Courier

Feb 25, 2023, "A 13% salary increase? North Charleston's political plan is ill conceived" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-a-13-salary-increase-north-charlestons-political-pay-plan-is-ill-considered/article_517a3410-b2ee-11ed-94bc-f3bdf56f9041.html

Our View: Charleston City Paper

Feb 1, 2023, "Defend Democracy Now, More Than Ever" https://charlestoncitypaper.com/2023/02/01/our-view-defend-democracy-now-more-than-ever/

Letter to the Editor: The State

Jan 22, 2023, "Letter: Support RCV" https://www.thestate.com/article271404912.html

Commentary: Post and Courier

Jan 22, 2023, "Ranked choice voting means more voices and more choices for South Carolinians" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/commentary-ranked-choice-voting-means-more-voices-choices-for-south-carolinians/article_eb142834-9821-11ed-bcc9-bf2880c525a0.html

Opinion: Post and Courier

Nov 19, 2022, "Scoppe: Ranked-choice voting just keeps growing. It’s time for SC to expand its use here" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/scoppe-ranked-choice-voting-just-keeps-growing-its-time-for-sc-to-expand-its-use/article_674bb5e6-6548-11ed-8f44-17fa572bad58.html

Letter to the Editor: Post and Courier

Nov 18, 2022, "Ranked Choice" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letters-250-committees-research-revolutionary-war-in-sc/article_3008f0c6-4ef0-11ed-b062-af32c4ad8630.html This article won the Golden Pen Award: https://www.postandcourier.com/letter-on-ranked-choice-voting-wins-golden-pen-for-november/article_7d3e13bc-7b1e-11ed-882e-f77cad6b91e5.html

Opinion: Post and Courier

August 14, 2022, "An important reminder of how elections work and how SCs could work better" https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-an-important-reminder-of-how-elections-work-and-how-scs-could-work-better/article_70e99370-1750-11ed-8372-1f26839ee521.html

Opinion: The State

February 2022, "Want to change SC politics for the better? Vote incumbents out, Columbia resident urges" https://www.thestate.com/opinion/article258132688.html

Letter to the Editor: Greenville News

October 30, 2020, "Why South Carolina Lawmakers Should Get Behind Ranked Choice Voting" https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/opinion/2021/10/30/letter-congress-should-fund-switch-ranked-choice-voting/8565312002/

Are we missing any? Let us know at [email protected]

Instant runoff voting or IRV (also known as ranked choice voting) is a simple, common sense upgrade to the way that we vote that solves multiple problems

Why IRV?

Save Time and Money with IRV

• The state of South Carolina spent over $830,000 just in primary runoffs in 2018. What a waste!
• Runoffs occur when no candidate in the race achieves 50% of the vote. Runoffs are most prevalent in primaries, but many places in South Carolina require the candidate to secure at least 50% of the vote. When they do not, a runoff election is triggered and voters need to return to the polls in two weeks.
  • Runoffs generally have a much lower voter turnout compared to regular elections.
• With IRV, voters only need to vote once. This saves time and money. Plus, it ensures that more than 50% of the voters have voted for the winner.
• Currently, our over seas military use an instant runoff ballot.

Encourages Competition

• Everyone loves a good competition: more choices means that we can more easily find a candidate who represents our will.
• Since voters can rank their choices on a single ballot, we can vote for the best candidate with the best ideas instead of voting strategically

Promotes Majority Support

• Not all South Carolina elections result in a runoff if a candidate secures less than 50% of the vote. That means that we have elected officials for whom the majority of South Carolinians did not vote.
  • In 2018 there were 79 races where the winner did not secure majority support
• With IRV, we don't have to go back to the polls to ensure majority support because we rank our candidates all at once. Every winner will have secured majority support.

Discourages Negative Campaigning

• Since voters rank their choices, candidates also want to be voter's second and third choices.

• In non-IRV elections, candidates benefit from mudslinging and attacking their opponent instead of sharing their positive vision and policies with voters. This can lead to increasingly toxic and polarizing campaigns.

• With IRV, candidates also compete for second choice votes from their opponents’ supporters which lessens the incentive to run a negative campaign. In IRV contests, candidates do best when they reach out positively to as many voters as possible, including those supporting their opponents.

Other Benefits

• Reduces polarization
• Encourages greater representation
  • Candidates are sometimes pressured to stay out of the race for fear of splitting the vote with another similar candidate. This can be particularly true for candidates from groups under-represented in elected office, such as people of color and women. 
• Minimizes strategic voting by eliminating vote splitting and the spoiler effect
  

How Does It Work

Instant Runoff Voting is a simple upgrade to the way we currently vote.

Right now, when you vote, you pick one candidate. With Instant Runoff Voting, you get to rank candidates in the order that you prefer them: 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, and so on. If your first choice can’t win, your vote automatically transfers to your second choice.

If a candidate secures more than 50% of the vote in the first round, then nothing is different and the candidate wins. However, if a candidate does not receive 50% of the vote, the candidate who has secured the fewest votes is eliminated and anyone who voted for that candidate has their vote transferred to their second pick. This process continues until a candidate reached 50%. This ensures that every vote counts and the candidate who won has majority support.

It's that simple. We rank all kinds of things in our lives. We all have favorites and second choices, even third choices. Better Ballot SC wants to upgrade all South Carolinians to this common sense way of voting.

Here's an example of a sample BBQ Ballot:

What Others Are Saying

Cato Institute: Reasons to Like Ranked Choice Voting

FairVote: What Unites Utah Republicans and Democrats? Ranked Choice Voting

Washington Post: How Ranked Choice Voting Saved the Virginia GOP From Itself

Videos on IRV/RCV

Fair Vote has been educating the public about the benefits of Instant Runoff Voting for years. Check out one of their videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqblOq8BmgM

The Utah Republican Party used IRV in their National Convention. See their explainer video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2tyRlj6Bw

Check out this video that talks about voting for the lesser of two evils: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6pC5IJirrY

Welcome to the IRV/RCV Day Rally at the State House

Hosted by Better Ballot SC

More Voice and More Choice

Program of Events

Introduction

Nicole Sanchez

President of Better Ballot SC

Explanation of Instant Runoff Voting/Ranked Choice Voting and Today's Polls

Rank Your Ice Cream

Rank Your Sports to Watch

Rank Your Marvel Super Heroes

Nicole Sanchez

Remarks

Danny Morales

Co-Chair of SC State Braver Angels and Co-Chair of Braver Angels Soda City Alliance

Remarks

Joseph Oddo

Four Time Ballot Certified Congressional Candidate and Founder of Numerous Political Advocacy Organizations

Rank Your Ice Cream Results

Nicole Sanchez

Remarks

Kasie Whitener

Vice Chair of the SC Libertarian Party

She will also read a statement from former GA Senate Candidate and current Presidential Candidate Chase Oliver

Remarks

David Whiteman

Member of the SC Green Party and Former Member of the University of South Carolina Political Science Department

Rank Your Favorite Sport to Watch Results

Nicole Sanchez

Remarks

Christopher Himsl

Former Colonel in the United States Army and Current Midlands Leader of Principles First South Carolina

Remarks

Dr. Jermaine Johnson

South Carolina State House Representative, District 70

Rank Your Marvel Super Heroes

Nicole Sanchez

Keynote Speaker

Andrew Yang

Former Presidential Candidate and Current Co-Leader of Forward

Coalition Partners

Special Thanks

All our program participants

Contact Your Representatives About These Great Bills

Voters Choice Act

This bill would provide $40 million in grants to support local and state governments to transition to instant runoff voting and cover up to 50% of the cost.

Click here to learn more about this great bill

Click here to contact your representatives about this great reform.

Fair Representation Act

This common sense bill expands instant runoff voting to all Americans and solves the problem of gerrymandering

It establishes multi-member districts for congressional elections

It institutes single transferable vote in these elections (this is instant runoff voting but for elections with multiple candidates)

It creates new requirements for congressional redistricting

Click here to contact your representatives about this great reform

Are you interested in becoming a part of the voting reform effort in South Carolina? Let's expand instant runoff voting (also known as ranked choice voting) in South Carolina and give voters More Voice and More Choice.

We've been working to educate voters about this common sense upgrade to the way that we currently vote. Join us to Better the South Carolina Ballot by RSVPing for our quarterly statewide strategy call.

We're going hybrid! Join us in Charleston this time (or Zoom if it's a drive). Exact location TBD. Prepare for a fun, informative time. Please arrive 15 minutes early to have time to order drinks and to chat with fellow supporters.

Curious how it works? It's as easy as 1, 2, 3! Join the call and we can go more in depth, but here are the basics:

When voters go to the polls, instead of voting for one, they rank their candidates. This gives voters More Voice and More Choice. If a voter's top choice has no path to victory, their vote is transferred to their second choice. This ensures majority support while eliminating costly runoffs. It also has some other great benefits:

• Reduces polarization and mudslinging
• Eliminates the spoiler effect and vote splitting
• Increases representation

Visit our Why IRV? page to learn more. Or come to the meeting!

Are you a fan of instant runoff voting (also known as ranked choice voting) and want your friends to know it too? This is a perfect opportunity!

We can send a presenter who knows all about IRV and can easily communicate that information to you and your guests. Plus, you'll have the opportunity to see IRV in action with an election of your choice. Some of our favorites are cookies, wings, and beer, but if you have something else in mind, we're open! Just let us know.

To host a house party, simply fill out the form below and we'll be in touch.

Some happy guests at our first house party!