Massachusetts Question 2, Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative (2020)

Massachusetts Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative
Election date November 3, 2020
Topic Elections and campaigns
Status Certified to the legislature
Type State statute	Origin Citizens
List of Massachusetts measuresMassachusetts Question 1Massachusetts Question 2Submit

The Massachusetts Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative may appear on the ballot in Massachusetts as an initiated state statute on November 3, 2020.

The ballot measure would enact ranked-choice voting (RCV) for the following primary and general elections in Massachusetts:

• statewide offices,
• state legislative offices,
• federal congressional offices, and
• and certain other offices.

RCV is a voting method in which voters rank candidates according to their preferences. The candidate that receives a majority of first-preference votes is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated. First-preference votes cast for the failed candidate are eliminated, and the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots are tallied as their first preference in the following round. The process is continued until a candidate wins a simple majority (50%+1) of the vote.

The sponsors of the initiative submitted 111,268 signatures on December 4, 2019. Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin verified that more than 80,239 signatures were valid.

Text of measure

Ballot summary

The final ballot summary for the measure is as follows. Click [show] to expand the summary.

Initiative 19-10 ballot summary

“ This proposed law would implement a voting system known as “ranked-choice voting,” in which voters rank one or more candidates by order of preference. Ranked-choice voting would be used in primary and general elections for all Massachusetts statewide offices, state legislative offices, federal congressional offices, and certain other offices beginning in 2022. Ranked-choice voting would not be used in elections for president, county commissioner, or regional district school committee member. Under the proposed law, votes would be counted in a series of rounds. In the first round, if one candidate received more than 50 percent of the first-place votes, that candidate would be declared the winner and no other rounds would be necessary. If no candidate received more than 50 percent of the first-place votes, then the candidate or candidates who received the fewest first-place votes would be eliminated and, in the next round, each vote for an eliminated candidate would instead be counted toward the next highest-ranked candidate on that voter’s ballot. Depending on the number of candidates, additional rounds of counting could occur, with the last-place candidate or candidates in each round being eliminated and the votes for an eliminated candidate going to the voter’s next choice out of the remaining candidates. A tie for last place in any round would be broken by comparing the tied candidates’ support in earlier rounds. Ultimately, the candidate who was, out of the remaining candidates, the preference of a majority of voters would be declared the winner. Ranked-choice voting would be used only in races where a single candidate is to be declared the winner and not in races where more than one person is to be elected. Under the proposed law, if no candidate received more than 50 percent of first-place votes in the first round, the rounds of ballot-counting necessary for ranked-choice voting would be conducted at a central tabulation facility. At the facility, voters’ rankings would be entered into a computer, which would then be used to calculate the results of each round of the counting process. The proposed law provides that candidates in a statewide or district election would have at least three days to request a recount. The Secretary of State would be required to issue regulations to implement the proposed law and conduct a voter education campaign about the ranked-choice voting process. The proposed law would take effect on January 1, 2022. ”

Full text

The full text of the measure is available here.

Support

Voter Choice Massachusetts led the campaign in support of the ballot initiative.

Supporters

• Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin
• U.S. Representative Jim McGovern (D)
• U.S. Representative Lori Trahan (D)
• U.S. Representative Seth Moulton (D)
• Unite America
• Represent.Us

Opposition

Ballotpedia did not identify committees, organizations, or individuals opposing the ballot initiative. If you are aware of any opponents or opposing arguments, please send an email with a link to editor@ballotpedia.org.

Background

See also: Ranked-choice voting (RCV)

Ranked-choice voting

A ranked-choice voting system (RCV) is an electoral system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, he or she is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated. First-preference votes cast for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority of the adjusted votes. The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority. This system is sometimes referred to as an instant runoff voting system.

How ranked-choice voting works

Broadly speaking, the ranked-choice voting process (sometimes referred to as instant runoff voting) unfolds as follows:

1. Voters rank the candidates for a given office by preference on their ballots.
2. If a candidate wins an outright majority of first-preference votes (i.e., 50 percent plus one), he or she will be declared the winner.
3. If, on the other hand, no candidates win an outright majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated.
4. All first-preference votes for the failed candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots.
5. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won an outright majority of the adjusted voters.
6. The process is repeated until a candidate wins a majority of votes cast.

Ranked-choice voting in the United States

As of January 2026, ranked-choice voting is used in some states and localities across the United States. See the map, tables, and list below for further details. The numbers below do not include states where RCV is used by a political party for partisan primaries, or where military/UOCAVA voters use ranked ballots for runoff elections. For more information on these uses of RCV, see the table beneath the map below.

If you know of any additional U.S. localities using RCV that should be included here, please email editor@ballotpedia.org.

• RCV used statewide: Three states use RCV statewide. Alaska and Maine use RCV in some federal and statewide elections, while Hawaii uses it for certain statewide elections.
• RCV used (or scheduled for use) in some localities: Thirteen states contain localities that either use or are scheduled to begin using RCV in municipal elections.
• RCV prohibited: Eighteen states have adopted laws prohibiting the use of RCV in any elections.
• No laws addressing RCV, not in use: Sixteen states have no laws addressing RCV, and neither the state nor any localities in the state use it.

The map below shows which states use ranked-choice voting statewide or in some localities as of January 2026. It also shows the states where RCV is either prohibited or not addressed in the law. It does not show states where RCV is used by a political party for partisan primaries, or where military/UOCAVA voters use ranked ballots for runoff elections. See the table beneath the map for details on these uses of RCV.

Maine Question 5 (2016) and Question 1 (2018)

See also: Maine Question 5, Ranked-Choice Voting Initiative (2016) and Maine Question 1, Ranked-Choice Voting Delayed Enactment and Automatic Repeal Referendum (June 2018)

On November 8, 2016, voters approved a ballot initiative—Maine Question 5—to establish a first-in-the-nation statewide system of ranked-choice voting. Voters approved the initiative 52.12% to 47.88%. Support for the initiative was stronger in southern coastal Maine, whereas the counties along the state's northern border with Canada voted against the measure.

Question 5 defined ranked-choice voting as "the method of casting and tabulating votes in which voters rank candidates in order of preference, tabulation proceeds in sequential rounds in which last-place candidates are defeated and the candidate with the most votes in the final round is elected."

On October 23, 2017, the Maine State Legislature held a special legislative session and passed Legislative Document 1646 (LD 1646). LD 1646 was written to postpone and repeal ranked-choice voting (RCV) unless a constitutional amendment was passed before December 1, 2021, to enable the legislature to determine election methods.

The Committee for Ranked-Choice Voting, which supported Question 5 in 2016, filed a petition for a veto referendum to overturn LD 1646. The campaign collected a sufficient number of signatures to place the referendum on the ballot for June 12, 2018, as Question 1. About 54% of electors voted to repeal LD 1646, keeping most of the provisions of Question 5 as law.

New York City Ballot Question 1 (2019)

See also: Ballot Question 1 (2019)

New York City voters approved Ballot Question 1 in 2019, making New York City the most populous jurisdiction in the U.S. to approve the use of the ranked-choice voting election method. Question 1 provides for ranked-choice voting in primary and special elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and city council members. It allows voters to rank in order of preference up to five candidates, including a write-in candidate. Before the measure, the city’s charter provided for plurality voting, also known as first-past-the-post, and run-off elections, depending on the office and type of election.

Alaska Ballot Measure 2 (2020)

See also: Alaska Ballot Measure 2 (2020)

The Alaska Top-Four Ranked-Choice Voting and Campaign Finance Laws Initiative was on the ballot in Alaska as an indirect initiated state statute on November 3, 2020. The initiative would make changes to Alaska's election policies, including:

• requiring persons and entities that contribute more than $2,000 that were themselves derived from donations, contributions, dues, or gifts to disclose the true sources (as defined in law) of the political contributions;
• replacing partisan primaries with open top-four primaries for state executive, state legislative, and congressional offices; and
• establishing ranked-choice voting for general elections, including the presidential election, in which voters would rank the candidates.

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Massachusetts

Process in Massachusetts

In Massachusetts, the number of signatures required to qualify an indirect initiated state statute for the ballot is equal to 3.5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. No more than one-quarter of the verified signatures on any petition can come from a single county. The process for initiated state statutes in Massachusetts is indirect, which means the legislature has a chance to approve initiatives with successful petitions directly without the measure going to the voters. A first round of signatures equal to 3 percent of the votes cast for governor is required to put an initiative before the legislature. A second round of signatures equal to 0.5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the last election is required to put the measure on the ballot if the legislature rejects or declines to act on a proposed initiated statute. Signatures for initiated statutes in Massachusetts are collected in two circulation periods. The first period runs from the third Wednesday in September to two weeks prior to the first Wednesday in December, a period of nine weeks. If the proposed law is not adopted by the first Wednesday of May, petitioners then have until the first Wednesday of July (eight weeks) to request additional petition forms and submit the second round of signatures.

The requirements to get an initiated state statute certified for the 2020 ballot:

• Signatures required (first round): 80,239 signatures
• Signatures required (second round): 13,374 signatures
• Deadline (first round): The deadline to submit the first round of signatures to the secretary of state was December 4, 2019. Signatures needed to be submitted to local registrars by November 20, 2019.
• Deadline (second round): The deadline to submit the second round of signatures was July 1, 2020.

If enough signatures are submitted in the first round, the legislature must act on a successful petition by the first Wednesday of May. The measure only goes on the ballot if the legislature does not pass it and if the second round of signatures is successfully collected.

Details about this iniaitive

• The ballot initiative was filed with the office of Attorney General Maura Healey (D) on August 7, 2019.
• The initiative was cleared to circulate on September 4, 2019.
• The sponsors of the initiative reported submitting 130,000 signatures to local registrars on November 20, 2019.
• The sponsors of the initiative submitted 111,268 signatures on December 4, 2019. Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin verified that more than 80,239 signatures were valid. The legislature has until May 5, 2020, to pass the ballot measure, or petitioners may gather a second round of signatures to place it on the 2020 ballot.

See also

2020 measures

• 2020 ballot measures
• Elections and campaigns on the ballot

Massachusetts

• Massachusetts ballot measures
• Massachusetts ballot measure laws
• Ranked-choice voting

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls