Minority Electorates and Ranked Choice Voting

You’re invited to join Nolan McCarty, Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, for an American Politics Speaker Series discussion sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and the Center for American Political Studies.

Registration is encouraged but not required. This event series will not be recorded.

This event is open to Harvard ID holders only. Lunch will be served.

Abstract

Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) purports to mitigate several perceived flaws of single district plurality electoral systems. However, little attention has been paid to how RCV might impact the influence of minority voters. In theory, RCV poses several difficulties for minority representation. First, as a majoritarian system, RCV forecloses opportunities for minority-group-backed candidates to win when majority-group voters fail to coordinate on a single candidate. Second, this problem is compounded when majority-group candidates fail to appeal to minority-group voters, such as when those voters are unwilling or unable to rank multiple candidates. Consequently, patterns of ballot exhaustion and truncation across demographic groups is key to understanding how RCV might affect minority-group voters. I examine racial and ethnic patterns of ballot exhaustion in the 2021 New York City Democratic Primary and the 2022 elections in Alaska. I find strong evidence that electorates with heavy concentrations of ethnic and racial minorities have substantially higher rates of ballot exhaustion, raising important questions about the impact of RCV on the electoral influence of such groups.

About the Series

The United States is a crossroads. How can Americans connect to each other in deep and meaningful ways, despite holding drastically different political world views? What are the causes and consequences of our nation’s historic levels of partisan polarization? Just how far can democratic backsliding go? The American Politics Speaker Series (APSS) aims to bring together scholars who are doing research on these and other important questions. Hosted jointly with the Center for American Political Studies and chaired by Professors Benjamin Schneer and Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, each session will highlight a scholar whose research is at the forefront of the study of American politics.

Event Details

The Ash Center encourages individuals with disabilities to participate in its events. Should you wish to enquire about an accommodation, please contact our events team at info@ash.harvard.edu prior to the event.

Additional questions? Email the Ash Center events team at info@ash.harvard.edu.