The “spoiler effect” has long been a point of contention in close political contests, where a third candidate appears to have drawn first-choice votes away from one candidate in a closely contested race. Ranked-choice voting allows these voters’ full range of preferences reflected in the outcome.

Also, in races with numerous candidates, the winning candidate frequently receives less than 50% of the vote. In such contests, the leading candidate may receive a weak plurality of the vote. Examples from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors elections demonstrate how ranked-choice voting yields majority or, at least, strong plurality winners in such elections.

Similarly, in the 2013 Mayoral contest in Minneapolis, with 35 candidates, Betsy Hodges received 36% of the 1st choice votes, followed by 61% of the vote in the final round of tabulation.

Recent Gubernatorial elections in Maine, where strong independent candidates led to the election of governors without majority support (in one case less than 40%) contributed to Maine voters’ 2016 adoption of RCV for its statewide and General Assembly elections.