Ranked Choice Voting fails again

Loftus and Boudin

A letter to the editor in today's SF Chronicle:

Ranked-choice voting issue

Regarding “Election takeaway: a mayor without coattails” (John Diaz, Nov. 10): 

Once again, thanks to ranked-choice voting, the second most popular candidate has won an election. Chesa Boudin, who according to political analyst David Latterman had “zero chance” of beating Suzy Loftus in a runoff, is now our City District Attorney.

An amazing result considering Boudin secured a little more than a third of the first place votes. “It would be the highest-profile, clear example of (ranked-choice voting) not delivering the results the city intended to occur,” said Latterman. 

Isn’t it time to eliminate ranked-choice voting so the most popular candidate can actually win the election?

Now we have a district attorney who has vowed to limit, if not eliminate, prosecution for the type of street crimes that San Franciscans are up in arms about. Another item on Boudin’s agenda is to do away with gang enhancements. No wonder the San Francisco Police Officers Association spent more than $600,000 in an effort to defeat Boudin. Thanks to ranked-choice voting, they failed.

Kenneth Jones 

San Francisco

Rob's comment:

Yes, the Ranked Choice Voting system also gave us Mayor London Breed, who was elected by a minority last year to finish Ed Lee's term. 

If Boudin and Loftus had to campaign against each other in a run-off election, Boudin's political agenda could have been thoroughly debated. That kind of issue-based run-off election can't happen under the flawed RCV system, a bogus good government reform brought to us by city progressives.

John Diaz at the SF Chronicle got it right on the RCV system:

Boudin’s victory should cause the city to rethink the system, which was pushed hardest in 2002 by progressives who no doubt were dreaming of such a result in a city in which they are outnumbered in at-large elections. “It would be the highest-profile, clear example of (ranked-choice voting) not delivering the results the city intended to occur,” Latterman said before the outcome was decided. He was proved right.

See also City Hall doubles down on dumb RCV.