Return of the ranked choice voting

Ranked Choice Voting had a bad year in 2022. Will it work this fall? Which races may be decided by RCV? An Alameda councilmember was injured while intoxicated, police say

ELECTION 2024

15 days to Election Day

—RANK CHOICE—The faulty settings that led Alameda County’s ranked choice voting algorithm to go haywire in November 2022 have been correctly set for the upcoming fall elections, Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis said last week.

—The registrar’s office worked closely with Dominion Voting Systems, the county’s election vendor, to “double- and triple-check all settings for ranked choice voting,” Dupuis told the Alameda County Election Commission on Thursday. “We’ve been assured that those settings are correct,” Dupuis said.

—In 2022, the incorrect settings affected all ranked choice voting races in the four cities that use the alternative voting system—Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, and Albany. However, the error only affected the result of an Oakland school board race, which Dupuis incorrectly certified the wrong winner.

—The registrar’s office also tested the ranked choice voting settings prior to the 2022 election. This time around, Dupuis said. “We know what we’re looking for with the particular error.”

—Dominion is set to release an update to its ranked choice voting program that will “gray out” settings that do not pertain to Alameda County, Dupuis said. However, the update will not be certified by the California Secretary of State’s office in time for the Nov. 5 election.

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MORE INSIDE(RS)

• ELECTION 2024: The local races that ranked choice voting may loom large

• Alameda councilmember was intoxicated, police say, treated for injuries

• Campaign finance data