Get Your Vote On…The Ranked Choice Way

Published:

By: Drew McManus

In: Board & Committee Management

In light of an Electoral College with an unusually high degree of scrutiny, it seems fitting to point out a voting system that could be better options for your needs than the traditional simple majority plurality ballot: Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).

Also known as instant-runoff voting or preferential voting, allows voters to rank candidates/options by order of choice. It’s flexible enough to work for both single winner and multiple seat style elections and helps marginalize hard feelings when the results are close. FairVote.com provides some wonderfully useful resources that explain the benefits of RCV, situations where it is most effective, and even a resource list of organizations currently using it via their respective bylaws.

Ranked Choice Voting

For nonprofit arts orgs, RCV is worth considering for executive committee votes and even selecting new artistic/program leaders. For arts and entertainment based unions, it provides an equal degree of usefulness when members need to select representatives for negotiation committees or any other standing committee per their collective bargaining agreement.

If you’re more of a image oriented learner, FairVote has a pair of videos from MPR that do a terrific job at explaining how RCV works in both single and multiple choice winner scenarios.

Single Choice

YouTube video

Multiple Choice

YouTube video

Drew McManus
Author
Drew McManus
In addition to my consulting business, I'm also the Principal of Venture Industries Online but don’t let that title fool you into thinking I'm just a tech geek. I bring 20+ years of global broad-based arts consulting experience to the table to help clients break the cycle of choosing one-size-fits-none solutions and instead, deliver options allowing them to get ahead of the tech curve instead of trying to catch up by going slower. With the vision of legacy support strategy and the delights of creative insights, my mission is to deliver a sophisticated next generation technology designed especially for the field of performing arts. The first step in that journey began in 2010 when The Venture Platform was released, a purpose-designed managed website development solution designed especially for arts organizations and artists. For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, lead a team of intrepid arts pros to hack the arts, lead an arts business incubator, and love a good coffee drink.
Author Archive

Leave a Comment