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Interactive Voter Guide

Allegheny County Executive - Unscientific Ranked-Choice Survey

THIS IS AN UNSCIENTIFIC TOOL MEANT TO HELP STUDENTS, VOTERS, INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS EXPLORE THE CONCEPT OF RANKED CHOICE VOTING. THESE RESULTS ARE NOT INDICATIVE OF ANY VOTING TRENDS.

Allegheny County's crowded County Executive race is a perfect opportunity to explore ranked choice voting (RCV) - also known as "Instant runoff voting" (IRV), and examine the impact that ranked-choice voting could have if implemented in Pennsylvania. (This is similar to the unscientific survey we did for Philadelphia's mayoral race.)

RCV is straightforward: Voters can rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third, and so forth. Votes that do not help voters' top choices win count for their next choice.

Along with our partners at FairVote, the country's leading authority on RCV, we've made available a public, non-scientific, survey tool simulating RCV in the upcoming primary election for Allegheny County Executive. This educational tool, open to all Allegheny County residents, is designed to allow users to engage with the popular method of voting used in cities like Oakland, Minneapolis and New York City.

The instructions are simple: Select which candidate is your top preference in the 1st column. Select your second-choice candidate in the 2nd column, and so on. You do not need to choose five candidates if you don't want to.

After making selections using the RCV tool below, you'll be able to see the results and how the process works. For example, if a candidate does not win on the first round of counting the votes, the votes of the lowest vote-getter in that round would be reapportioned to those voters' second choices. The process of elimination continues until a candidate receives a majority of the votes.