{"id":334848,"date":"2026-05-27T20:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/334848\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T20:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T20:02:07","slug":"californias-top-two-primary-isnt-broken-it-just-needs-ranked-choice-voting-to-work-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/334848\/","title":{"rendered":"California’s top-two primary isn’t broken. It just needs ranked choice voting to work better."},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published in The Renovator<\/a> on May 17.<\/p>\n

Democrats in California are understandably frustrated and afraid that they could be locked out of November\u2019s general election due to the state\u2019s \u201ctop two\u201d all-candidate primary. Change may be coming \u2013 but it\u2019s important to get it right.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, a Democratic strategist launched a\u00a0ballot initiative<\/a>\u00a0campaign to repeal the top-two primary and revert to traditional party primaries. Though any California ballot measure faces a long and expensive road to passage, supporters are hoping to get the initiative on the ballot in 2028. This is not the way to go.<\/p>\n

Major-party consultants and donors may jump to support such a measure. But passage would be a big loss for California voters. The state\u2019s top-two primary has been good for California and its democracy. It has introduced\u00a0more competition<\/a>, fostered greater choice, and given every voter a voice in both rounds of state and congressional elections.<\/p>\n

Instead of turning back the clock, California should continue its history of pro-voter reform and build on the top-two system \u2013 by adding ranked choice voting to its elections.<\/p>\n

Ranked choice voting would address a very real \u2013 if rare \u2013 issue. California\u2019s top-two primary has a lockout problem, and it\u2019s affected\u00a0Democrats<\/a>\u00a0and Republicans alike. Both parties have\u00a0been locked out of elections in the 15 years that the reform has been used.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s governor\u2019s race has been the clearest and most high-profile example. For months,\u00a0polls<\/a>\u00a0showed Republicans \u2013 conservative commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco \u2013 leading the way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that Republicans have had a sudden resurgence in the Golden State. President Donald Trump\u2019s approval rating sits at\u00a037 percent<\/a>. Instead, it\u2019s a math problem: Two Republicans shared the small GOP vote, while eight serious Democratic candidates divided a larger electorate into smaller slices. Party leaders have been unable to nudge candidates at the bottom of the polls out of the race \u2013 which is understandable, since elections are supposed to be decided at the ballot box, not in back rooms.<\/p>\n

As the race has gone on, the possibility of a Democratic \u201clockout\u201d has grown less likely \u2013 but longtime critics of the open primary are cynically seizing the opportunity nonetheless. It\u2019s rare to get chairs of the state\u2019s\u00a0Democratic<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Republican<\/a>\u00a0parties on the same page about anything: But both agree that the voter-first reform should go.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater and ignore the clear benefits of the top-two primary. RCV solves the problem and makes the system even stronger.<\/p>\n

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Ranked choice voting is an important tool in any race. It lets people vote for who they believe in \u2013 not just who they think can win. That\u2019s because voters can rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third, and so on.<\/p>\n

It works like an instant runoff: The lowest-performing candidates are eliminated one by one \u2013 by voters. If your top choice remains, your vote stays with them. If not, your second choice comes into play. No one has to drop out, or be shoved aside when there are multiple candidates in the field.<\/p>\n

Adopting RCV would eliminate the central fear driving this ballot measure and Democratic panic this cycle \u2013 that too many similar candidates cancel one another out. With ranked choice, voters can hear from all the candidates, then support their favorite without worrying that they\u2019ll accidentally help elect someone from the other party.<\/p>\n

California could use RCV in the primary to narrow the field to the two most popular candidates. Even better, the state could advance the top four finishers \u2013 instead of just two \u2013 to a November election that uses ranked choice to elect a majority winner.<\/p>\n

This top-four policy was\u00a0developed<\/a>\u00a0by FairVote<\/a>\u00a0in the early 2010s and adopted in Alaska in 2020. The system gives voters more choices in the general election, and makes it far less likely that one party will get locked out.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Alaska\u2019s 2022 gubernatorial race<\/a>, for example, the general election ballot featured two Republicans, one Democrat, and one independent.\u00a0Voters say<\/a>\u00a0they like the system and find it easy; since implementation, Alaska legislators have been more likely to work across the aisle and have even formed bipartisan governing caucuses in both the state Senate and House. In California, a similar system would probably make space for both Democrats and Republicans in the general election for governor.<\/p>\n

Either way, Californians would get the benefits of an inclusive primary while fixing the loophole that allows narrowly favored plurality winners to move forward.<\/p>\n

And with ranked choice, the entire campaign could be different. Candidates could discuss immigration, housing costs, and education \u2013 instead of which candidates should drop out and how soon. A crowded field would no longer be seen as a threat to manage but as a normal feature of a competitive election. Voters \u2013 not insiders or wealthy donors \u2013 would decide which candidates rise to the top.<\/p>\n

California has spent decades working to make its elections more inclusive and representative. Ranked choice voting would build on that tradition, by allowing the state to keep a wide-open primary while ensuring that the candidates who advance and win have demonstrated real majority support.<\/p>\n

Our democracy has lots of problems \u2013 but too much choice should never be among them.<\/p>\n

Meredith Sumpter is president and CEO of\u00a0FairVote<\/a>. Marcela Miranda-Prieto is executive director of the\u00a0California Ranked Choice Voting Coalition<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was first published in The Renovator on May 17. Democrats in California are understandably frustrated and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-334848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}