Santa Clara County mulls a move to ranked voting
Format faces public scrutiny, legal hurdles
As ranked choice voting gains more popularity in cities across the Bay Area and around the West, Santa Clara County is looking to overhaul its own elections by adopting the system starting in 2024.
If it succeeds in changing the method to select countywide candidates, Santa Clara would be the first stand-alone county in the state to enact the stillcontroversial system, which eliminates the need for runoff elections by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference.
But major barriers stand in the county's way. It's still legally questionable whether it can make the switch without special state legislation. And on Dec. 28, Alameda County officials said a mistake in their distribution of some second- and third-choice votes will change the outcome of an Oakland school board race — an admission certain to deepen mistrust of the system.
Still, advocates for ranked choice voting in Santa Clara County argue it would usher in a more diverse set of officeholders and help tone down the negative political attacks that have become routine during election season. The change would apply to the county's four elected positions: board supervisor, assessor, sheriff and district attorney.
“Santa Clara County is the land of innovation,” said Sean Dugar, consulting executive director for the state's Ranked Choice Voting Coalition. “And ranked choice voting is tried and true. The county once again has the opportunity to show the rest of the state what can be.” Dugar said that in Santa Clara County specifically, there's a disconnect between its elected officials and residents — a sizable number of whom are Asian and Hispanic — and that the new voting format could close that gap.
Under ranked choice voting, primaries would be scrapped for county-level elections, and only a general election would be held. Voters could pick multiple candidates in preferential order, with the winner requiring a simple majority. If a simple majority isn't reached, the votes are redistributed based on voters' preferences until one candidate reaches above the 50% threshold.
In some cases, a candidate who didn't receive the most first-place votes can still get elected. In last month's Oakland mayoral election, Sheng Thao won the city's top seat by a margin of 0.55% — despite not receiving the most firstplace votes — leading second-place finisher Loren Taylor and the NAACP to claim ranked choice voting was not working for the city.
Proponents contend that candidates are less likely to attack their opponents under ranked choice voting since doing so could push some voters not to choose them as their second or third choice. That's hard to prove, but the Oakland mayor's race in November, with 10 candidates, was notably less nasty than the San Jose mayor's race with two.
San Francisco, Oakland, Albany, Berkeley, San Leandro and Palm Desert in Southern California all
use ranked choice voting. Across the state, the cities of Eureka, Ojai and Redondo Beach may adopt it in the next few years.
In Santa Clara County, two key developments have made ranked choice voting a possibility — machines purchased in 2019 allow such an option and in 2020 voters elected Supervisor Otto Lee, a staunch supporter of changing the county's voting procedures.
“I think the need to have more voices and more opportunity for minority candidates has proved to be very real,” said Lee in an
interview. For the county to adopt the new system, it will require roughly $1.7 million a year in technology and paper costs, according to estimates.
Not everyone is keen on a change to the voting rules. Assessor Larry Stone, who has held his seat since 1994, is strongly opposed to ranked choice voting. Stone knocked out his first challenger in years, Gary Kremen, by a wide margin during last June's primary.
“I hate it,” Stone said bluntly. He worries that the tweak could subject voters — who already wait many days for certain election results because of California's uniquely accessible voting laws — to even more delays. Others argue the system is confusing for voters — and that primary elections help voters narrow down the choices and then focus on the final two candidates, comparing and contrasting them at a deeper level.
“It reminds me of this current trend of everyone getting a participation ribbon and everyone wins,” said Stone. “Let's step up. Whoever wins the election wins it.”
Over in Oakland, ranked choice voting is now under an intense spotlight after third-place candidate Mike Hutchinson was informed Dec. 28 that he had actually won the race for Oakland Unified's District 4 school board seat, based on errors discovered in voting tallies. The city adopted the new voting system in 2010.
But Dugar from the California Ranked Choice Voting Coalition said the screw-up was a “one-off” — and that others, like San Francisco, use the same systems without error.
“I think this is definitely a learning experience,” he said, adding that the voting software, Dominion Voting Systems, requires a “learning curve” for registrars. Dugar's organization, along with a national electoral reform group called Fairvote, were the first to inform Alameda County about the error.
While Supervisor Lee doesn't deny that the switch to ranked choice voting could create some complications for the county's Registrar of Voters, he maintains that the voting machines will be able to swiftly transition Santa Clara to the new format.
“I think it's worth it,” said Lee, who declined to comment specifically about the situation in Alameda County.
But for Santa Clara County to become an electoral trailblazer among its county neighbors, it will have to overcome not only public scrutiny but also legal and legislative hurdles.
California law specifically states that only cities — not counties — can tweak their procedures for ranked choice voting, according to Santa Clara County attorneys. San Francisco was able to move ahead with ranked choice voting because of its dual status as a county and city, according to the California Ranked Choice Voting Coalition.
That may force Santa Clara County supervisors to appeal to the courts to clarify the state's laws, or to seek a change through the California Legislature.
There's also debate over whether county residents would have to pass a ballot measure to pave the way for ranked choice voting.
Recent efforts to expand ranked choice voting throughout California have faced several setbacks. Both Gov. Gavin Newsom and his predecessor Jerry Brown vetoed legislation that would have opened it up to cities and counties. In San Jose, Mayor Sam Liccardo suggested moving forward with ranked choice voting during a ferocious debate earlier this month about filling two vacant council seats, but councilmembers struck down the idea.
Though it faces a potentially long road ahead before the 2024 election season, Dugar thinks that ranked choice voting will soon be a reality in Silicon Valley.
“I'm very hopeful,” he said. “One way or another, we'll figure it out.”