And the Oscar Goes to…Ranked Choice Voting!
Millions of Americans will tune into the Academy Awards this Sunday, laughing along with Conan O’Brien and holding their breath to see which film takes home Hollywood’s most coveted prize: Best Picture. Will it go to a newcomer to the award like Josh Safdie or a veteran nominee like Paul Thomas Anderson? To a thriller like Sinners or a more contemplative piece à la Sentimental Value?
But beyond the glitz, the gowns, and the gossip, the way this award is decided is actually a fascinating lesson in democracy. And there’s a lot we can learn from the Oscars about how to improve our own elections here in the Commonwealth.
Remember back in 2009 when the Internet went a little crazy over The Dark Knight getting snubbed? The Academy responded by increasing the number of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10. At the same time, they switched the process for choosing the final winner from a simple plurality-wins election to the “preferential ballot,” more commonly known as ranked choice voting (RCV).
RCV is nothing new: it was invented and first used in the 1850s and was also used in the early days of the Oscars, from 1936 to 1945. (A multi-winner version called proportional RCV has also been used to select nominees for all 23 categories since the 1930s.) It is well-suited for elections with many candidates because it prevents votes from being “wasted,” no matter how spread out they are to begin with, and ensures that the winner from a crowded field still has wide support.
Since RCV is still foreign to many Americans (unfortunately, despite its long history), the Academy has put out a video explainer of their process, but it’s not too complicated. On the ballot, Academy members rank the nominees from 1 to 10 in order of preference. If one of the films has a majority, not plurality, of first-choice votes, we have our winner! But otherwise, the film with the fewest first-choice votes is removed from consideration and the ballots that ranked it first count for their second choices instead. This process repeats until a single film wins with a majority among all remaining candidates.
The reasons the Academy switched to RCV are the same reasons Americans across the country are adopting it: to give voters more voice and more choice. Most urgently, it eliminates the problem of two similar movies, or politicians, “splitting” the vote. The process takes every voter’s full preferences (not just top choices) into account, and as long as voters don’t leave blanks on the ballot, the winner always has a majority mandate in the end.
The Oscars offer a reminder that RCV is all around us. Over 100 colleges and universities use Ranked Choice Voting for their student elections, and a similar method is even used to decide which of their football teams wins the Heisman Trophy. Plus, almost 14 million Americans use Ranked Choice Voting to choose our leaders in cities, counties, and states across the country. Imagine not having to worry about two candidates with similar positions splitting the vote, or about “wasting your vote” by casting it for a third-party candidate.
This dream could come true if our state legislators passed a bill allowing the use of RCV across our state. In fact, our own Rep. Chris Rabb recently introduced HB 123, which would amend the Election Code to give localities like Philadelphia the option to use Ranked Choice Voting. But the statehouse won’t take action without seeing evidence of demand at the local level. If improving our elections matters to you, call your City Council members to let them know!
So as Conan delivers his punchlines and you are cheering for your favorites this Sunday, take a moment to appreciate the democracy at work behind the scenes, and imagine what our lives could look like if we used Ranked Choice Voting off-screen in our elections!
Photo credit to Ms. Magazine.