Ranked Choice Voting Approved In Historic Evanston Referendum

EVANSTON, IL — Evanston overwhelmingly voters approved a ballot measure making the city the first in Illinois to implement ranked choice voting.

According to unofficial results from the Cook County Clerk's Office, more than half of registered Evanston voters cast ballots on the binding local referendum, which led by a 4-1 margin with all but one precinct reporting on Election Night.

Also known as instant runoff voting, the shift to ranked choice voting is set to take effect with the April 2025 local elections.

Instead of picking a single candidate during primaries and runoff elections, voters in a ranked choice voting system can list the candidates they support in order of preference.

Backers of ranked choice voting, or RCV, said it encourages positive campaigning, as candidates have an incentive to win over the supporters of their rivals, and ensures that winners have at least some support from a majority of the population.

Opponents contend voters could confused by the additional choices and need research more candidates, and the counting process is more time-consuming for election officials.

Counting votes in an RCV takes place over multiple rounds. If no candidate emerges with a majority of "first-choice" votes, the lowest vote-getter is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as No. 1 have their No. 2 choice counted.

For instance, if a voter's top three choices were all eliminated in the first rounds of counting, their vote would be counted for their fourth choice. The process continues for as many rounds as it takes for a candidate to collect more than 50 percent of votes.

If the referendum is approved by voters — and upheld in court if challenged — Evanston would join more than 50 municipalities and two states what have already implemented RCV.

Last year, New York City became the most populous jurisdiction to use a ranked choice system.

According to a post-election analysis, turnout rose by nearly 30 percent and more than 85 percent of ballots remained active in the final round of voting, i.e. they selected one of the top two candidates as one of their preferences — compared to 33 percent of votes that were "wasted" on candidates outside the top two four years earlier.

Evanston's RCV referendum has been endorsed by Mayor Daniel Biss, City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza, four members of City Council, the Democratic Party of Evanston, the Libertarian Party of Illinois, Reform for Illinois, League of Women Voters of Evanston, Indivisible Evanston, Common Cause Illinois and E-Town Sunrise.

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Unofficial results from the Cook County Clerk, late arriving mail in and provisional ballots are not included in the tally.