Irvine is asking voters to decide whether the city should switch from its traditional, one-candidate election system, to a ranked-choice voting system for councilmember and mayor races starting in 2028.
The new system would have voters rank candidates in order of preference with last-place candidates being eliminated. If a voter picks an eliminated candidate as their first choice, their vote is instead transferred to their second-choice candidate. The process repeats until one candidate receives more than 50% of votes.
If Measure D is approved by voters, the city could shoulder the unique costs related to being the first to adopt ranked-choice voting in Orange County, including the cost of educating voters and modifying county voting machines and election materials to accommodate.
But there’s a caveat included in the measure. If Measure D passes, ranked-choice voting would only be implemented if doing so costs less than 0.23% of Irvine’s general fund, or about $750,000 by 2028.
“In Irvine, candidates are regularly elected with less than one-third of the vote. Which means two-thirds of voters are represented by someone they don’t want. That is not real democracy,” Councilmember Kathleen Treseder said in the argument in favor that appears with the ballot. “Ranked Choice Voting guarantees that Irvine residents elect officeholders who win majority support. And it’s cost-effective. This iswhat real democracy looks like.”
She also said ranked-choice voting acts as an “instant runoff” and voters would not have to feel like they are choosing “the lesser evil” when casting a ballot with one choice.
It was a divided council that put the measure on the ballot, and Councilmember James Mai penned the ballot argument in opposition.
He argued the city is facing a budget deficit and it is unknown what the change to Irvine’s election process would ultimately cost.
“Cities that adopted ranked-choice voting did so to eliminate expensive runoff elections,” he added. “Irvine does not hold runoff elections. We don’t have the problem this is supposed to solve.”
“Our elections work now. Implementing this will be very expensive,” he said. “And it has had some serious problems in some places where it has been tried.”
A simple majority of voters in favor is required for Measure D to pass.