Ranked Choice Voting and the Minority Voting Rights

• In Event: Elections and Voting Behavior Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual Poster Session: Elections and Voting Behavior: Electoral Campaigns, Systems, and Strategy Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) has increasingly received scholarly attention from scholars of electoral system and political reform. One of the possible ill effects of RCV, however, is its impact on the ability of racial minority groups to elect candidates of their choice. Using exit polls data from the City of Hendersonville and Cary, North Carolina, Albuquerque, New Mexico and survey results from the 2020 Democratic primaries, this paper will examine the extent to which minority voters have engaged in RCV. Moreover, this paper will use aggregate election and demographic data to discuss how racial minority groups have used the “bail-in” option of the Section 3(c) of VRA to gain vote protection in the post-Shelby era, and it will empirically investigate whether or not that option will be in danger if RCV is adopted in jurisdictions with significant minority populations.

Authors

• Baodong Paul Liu, University of Utah

• Richard Lee Engstrom, University of Houston