Ranked‑choice voting explained to Wilmington intergovernmental committee

Jason Hoover, chair of the nonprofit Rank the Vote Delaware, presented ranked‑choice voting to the Wilmington City Council Intergovernmental Committee on March 5, 2025, saying the system “ensures a majority of the votes to win” and reduces what he called vote‑splitting in crowded races.

Hoover told the committee that plurality (first‑past‑the‑post) systems can produce winners who lack majority support and that ranked‑choice voting — also called instant runoff voting — simulates successive runoffs in a single ballot so a candidate must achieve a majority. “The only rule under a ranked choice voting election is that a candidate must get a majority of the votes to win,” Hoover said.

Hoover described how ranked ballots allow voters to list first, second and third choices so when lower‑placed…