Redondo Beach elects new leaders — and makes history with ranked choice voting

Results are in from this month's Redondo Beach election. The South Bay city elected a mayor and other representatives — and pulled off an experiment in ranked-choice voting. Major indicators show that the process was simple for voters to navigate, didn’t depress turnout, and that most voters — though not an overwhelming majority — seemed to approve of the new system.

For the first time in L.A. County, Redondo voters were allowed to rank their preferences for mayor, City Council member in three districts and city attorney — although only the mayoral race and one council race featured more than two candidates. Ranked choice determined the winner in both of those races: Jim Light won the seat for mayor, and Brad Waller won against two others in the District 1 City Council race. The mayoral race allowed voters up to six rankings — one for each of the five candidates, plus another for a write-in.

A growing number of cities have been considering or experimenting with ranked-choice voting, a system where voters get to pick multiple candidates and rank them in order of preference rather than picking just one choice. Supporters bill it as a cheaper, faster way of voting that eliminates the need for runoff elections while allowing voters to actually pick the candidate they like — not just the one who’s most likely to win.

As ranked-choice voting has gained attention nationwide (it’s now used in more than 60 cities and counties across the country, including several cities in the Bay Area and Palm Desert in Southern California), one of the biggest questions from skeptics has been whether voters would be able to understand how to fill out their ballot. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a potential expansion of ranked choice in California in 2019 over concern that it would be confusing.

But it seems most Redondo Beach voters weren’t confused. Exit polling by research firm Lake Research Partners showed that 83% of voters surveyed found ranked choice easy to navigate — about half of that group said it was “very easy.” Ballot data also suggests that few people had issues — in the mayoral race, less than 1% of voters made mistakes on their ballot, such as giving two candidates the same ranking.

This tracks with other cities that have adopted ranked-choice voting. Several other studies have shown that voters understand how the system works and find it simple to navigate.

Making ranked choice easy to understand depends heavily on voter education. That was especially the case in Redondo Beach, where municipal elections have been entirely vote-by-mail for several years — meaning no poll workers to assist voters in person.

Redondo Beach City Clerk Eleanor Manzano said her office mailed literature about the new process to each registered voter three times through the voting period, and had staff meet with community groups and attend public events to make people aware of the change.

Voters occasionally faced confusion. Some voters wrongly assumed their top choice should be ranked 6 instead of 1, because 6 was the highest number, Manzano said. In other cases, voters weren’t sure whether they had to rank every single candidate in order to vote. (For the record, a voter’s top preference should be ranked 1, and they’re allowed to rank as few or as many candidates as they like.)

“But once it was explained, they were OK with it,” she said.

Did voters actually like it?

The same exit poll found that 61% of surveyed voters favored ranked-choice voting, while 25% disapproved and 13% had no opinion. While that shows majority approval, it’s a decidedly lower figure than the number of people who found the system easy to navigate.

Manzano said she encountered a “handful” of voters who disliked ranked-choice voting but didn’t give specific reasons why. “They just liked the old way,” she said.

She said many more were “thrilled” about the new voting system because they liked the idea of ranked choice. Generally, supporters of ranked choice say it allows them to pick the candidate they actually prefer, rather than strategizing to pick the person likeliest to win.

Mayoral candidate Nils Nehrenheim wrote on his Facebook page that “not a single person” he met on the campaign trail loved the new system, and that several voters sat out due to confusion. “The biggest comment I heard was ‘Simpler is better. Transparency,’” he wrote. (Nehrenheim lost his race, but posted his comments before the final results were released.)

Overall turnout in the March 4 election was 22.7% — roughly the same as the last round of municipal elections in March 2023 (22.4%).

Why and how Redondo Beach made the switch

Saving money was a big factor in the city's change, Manzano said.

Under ranked-choice voting, there is no runoff election between the top two candidates. Holding a runoff would normally cost Redondo Beach about $150,000, Manzano said. This was one of the reasons the City Council opted to explore alternative voting systems, ultimately resulting in the adoption of ranked choice.

The city didn’t necessarily save money in the March 4 election since it had to redirect that savings into voter education. Manzano budgeted about $100,000 for voter outreach. But, she said, as time goes on and voters adjust to the system, there will be less need for that kind of spending on mass voter education.

Redondo Beach was also able to make the switch fairly quickly because it determines its own election laws. Redondo Beach is one of 25 charter cities in L.A. County — these are cities that make their own rules on municipal affairs, including city elections. “General law” cities have to rely on the state’s election laws, so they can’t make big changes to their voting systems without a change in state law.

City Council members first started exploring alternative voting methods in 2022 and sent a ballot measure to voters asking them to approve the use of ranked choice. Voters passed it overwhelmingly in the March 2023 election with 77% of the vote.