DC voters approve Initiative 83, AP projects

WASHINGTON — Ranked choice voting and semi-open primaries are coming to the District as voters voted to approve ballot proposal Initiative 83, the Associated Press is projecting.  

Initiative 83 proposed two changes to voting in the District. It sought to implement ranked choice voting and to allow voters who are not registered with a political party to vote in the primary of their choosing. 

Ranked choice voting is also known to some as instant runoff voting. Instead of voting just for one candidate, people will be able to rank up to five candidates in order of preference.  

In a tight race with more than two candidates, it’s possible that none of the candidates get more than half of the votes. In a ranked choice system, the candidates with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, with the least popular candidate’s votes going to the person the voters ranked next, and so on and so forth until one candidate has received more than 50% of the vote.  

For example, in a race with three candidates, you could choose to vote for your favorite candidate with a No. 1 rank, and rank your second favorite candidate as a backup. If your favorite candidate gets the fewest number of votes, your vote would then go to the candidate you ranked second automatically. 

Potential problems may come, however, when people give two candidates the same ranking or don’t rank their vote at all. Those are called overvoting and under voting respectively. Overvoting and under voting can lead to no candidate being considered for that ballot at all. 

The second change proposed by Initiative 83 is more straightforward. D.C. voters registered as Independents could choose whether they want to vote in the Democratic primary, or the Republican primary.