London, Ont., becomes first city in Canada with ranked ballot voting system
London, Ont., may not be the first city to call itself London, but it’s distinguishing itself another way.
On Monday, voters in the city that is home to nearly 400,000 residents will become the first municipality in Canada to use a ranked ballot for their local election. The city says this system gives citizens more options at the polls with 14 wards and one mayoral seat at stake.
The city is calling it “ranked choice voting,” which it describes as a preferential voting method that allows voters to choose and rank their top three candidates in order — first, second or third.
“A winner is declared when a candidate receives 50 per cent plus one or more of the total votes cast,” the city’s website states. “If no candidate receives 50 per cent plus one of the votes, then the candidate who received the least amount of votes is eliminated from the race.”
This type of system, which is also known as “instant-runoff voting,” means multiple rounds of voting may be necessary to determine a winner. If necessary, the vote will come down to the final two candidates with the greatest percentages of support until one candidate wins a majority share of votes casted.
This type of preferential voting system is commonly used at party conventions to pick new leaders. For example, a modified form of this preferred ballot system was used by the Ontario PC Party to choose Doug Ford as their new party leader in March.
Ranked choice voting is also used in other countries worldwide including Australia, Malta and Ireland.
The Canadian Press reports all of Ontario’s cities and towns were given the option to use preferential voting for the first time this year, but only London took the province up on its offer.
This municipal election in London is expected to cost taxpayers $500,000, which is about twice as costly as the city’s most recent election that used the traditional first-past-the-post system due to higher costs to rent more complex voting tabulator machines, city clerk Cathy Saunders tells CBC News.
With files from The Canadian Press
