Irvine’s Measure D: Ranked choice voting

Irvine voters are being asked whether they want to join the small but growing ranks of cities that elect representatives using ranked choice voting, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference.

Official title on the ballot: Measure D — Measure Directing the Use of Ranked Choice Voting for City Council Member and Mayoral Elections after January 1, 2028

You are being asked:

“Shall a measure that directs, to the extent technically and financially feasible, the use of ranked choice voting for City Council Member and Mayoral Elections occurring after January 1, 2028, be adopted?”

What your vote means

• A "yes" vote means: The city will make all efforts to adopt ranked choice voting for elections starting in 2028.
• A "no" vote means: Voting for city representatives will stay the way it is now.

Understanding Measure D

Currently, Irvine uses the typical method of plurality voting to choose the mayor and city council members — voters choose a single candidate in each race, and the candidate with the most votes wins. If Measure D passes, voters in future elections would rank candidates in the order of preference. If your first choice is eliminated, your vote is transferred to your second choice, and so on, until a winner is declared.

To date, seven cities in California have adopted ranked choice voting, according to the advocacy group FairVote. An Orange County judge recently ordered Huntington Beach to adopt the method in order to remedy a history of racially polarized voting. (The city is appealing the decision.) On a larger scale, ranked choice voting is credited with helping Zohran Mamdani win the race for New York City mayor.

The history — and context — behind the measure

The Irvine City Council agreed earlier this year to place ranked choice voting on the November ballot with a caveat — if it passes, it will only be implemented if the cost stays within certain parameters.

How it would work

If no candidate wins more than 50% of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and any ballot that ranked that candidate first is transferred to the voter’s second-choice candidate. The process repeats, eliminating the lowest-ranking candidate, until one candidate has a majority of votes.

Irvine voters would be able to rank at least five candidates for each seat up for city council and mayor.

Still confused? Here’s a video from FairVote.org explaining how ranked choice voting works:

What people who support it say

Advocates say ranked choice voting lets people select their preferred candidate, even if they think that person’s chances of winning are slim. They say it ensures victors have a broad base of support (at least as a second or third choice), and helps eliminate the effects of “spoiler candidates.”

What people who oppose it say

Opponents say there’s no reason to change Irvine’s election system. They also say it would be unnecessarily expensive at a time when the city is facing a budget deficit that is projected to reach $47 million by the end of the decade.

Potential financial impact

The cost of switching to ranked choice voting is unclear, but it’s expected the price would go up, at least with the first election under the new method. But there’s a built-in cap: Ranked choice voting will only be implemented if the estimated cost at the time stays at or under 0.23% of the city’s general fund budget, or about $710,000 currently.

Follow the money

LAist’s Voter Game Plan will include more campaign financing information as we get closer to Election Day.

Further reading

• The city’s November 2026 election website, including the city attorney’s impartial analysis of Measure D and arguments for and against. 
• The full proposed ordinance
• Irvine puts Irvine puts ranked choice voting on the November ballot — with a caveat: LAist.com
• How New Yorkers embraced ranked choice voting
• How ranke choice voting works: CalRCV