Overview of Ranked Choice Voting System
for Board & Commission Appointments
September 8, 2026
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September 8, 2026
Item 16-A
September 8, 2026
• Prior to 2025, board and commission seats were selected through a roll-call voting process that sometimes took multiple rounds to complete
• The City Council directed an update to the Rules of Order on December 17, 2024, asking that staff assess ways in which we could create outcomes more representative of the full City Council when selecting board members and commissioners
• On January 28, 2025, the City Council adopted ranked choice voting (RCV) for selecting board and commission seats
• To clarify details related to the RCV system, on March 11, 2025, the City Council adopted updated rules for our board and commission selection process, as follows:
• The City selected the Weighted Inclusive Gregory Method to adopt a Proportional RCV system in Santa Monica • Further, the City clarified that the online tool, rankedchoices.com, would serve as our RCV counting tool Background
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• Proportional RCV was identified as a preferred voting method for selecting board and commission seats because the system evenly distributes voting power across all seven Councilmembers • Under a more typical plurality vote process, a majority of four Councilmembers could entirely ignore the preferences of three Councilmembers
• In a proportional ranked choice voting system, the system ensures that the minority group can influence the outcome of the selection process, in an effort to reflect the true preferences of the Council body as a whole • Weighted Inclusive Gregory Method is the counting formula used by the City to identify how votes are shared in proportion
• The WIGM process means that each Councilmember’s ballot counts for exactly 1 vote, split proportionally between how each Councilmember ranks their choices
• Under this system, given that each Councilmember’s vote is split proportionally amongst all of candidates they rank, this fractional-transfer process ensures that no four-member bloc of the Council can fill every seat • The WIGM Proportional RCV process is used in Scottish local elections, and in some Minneapolis multi-seat municipal elections
Proportional Ranked Choice Voting,
via the Weighted Inclusive Gregory Method
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September 8, 2026
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September 8, 2026
• Through our proportional RCV system, each election of board and commission seats results in a runoff process between the candidates that is calculated by our online tool via the following step-by-step process
• First: Councilmembers nominate candidates for consideration • Second: Councilmembers rank the nominees
• Third: The Computer sets the threshold of votes needed to guarantee a seat win • Fourth: First choice votes for each Councilmember are then counted • Fifth: Any candidate who receives the number of votes needed to win (as identified in Step 3) is seated, and any proportional spare (and unneeded) votes for that winning candidate are then moved to the Councilmembers’ next choices
• Sixth: If no one reaches the required number of votes needed to win, the nominee with the fewest votes is dropped out
• Seventh: This process is repeated until every seat is filled How The WIGM RCV Process Works In Practice
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September 8, 2026
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September 8, 2026
• In identifying the number of votes needed to guarantee a win for the open board or commission, the WIGM Proportional RCV methodology takes into account the number of seats that are open
• Then, the number of seats that are open are plugged into a formula, as follows, to determine how many votes are needed to win
• 7 votes / (# of open seats + 1)
• Per the methodology, the number of votes needed to guarantee a win is more than:
• 1 Seat Open = 7 / (1 + 1) = 7 / 2 = 3.50 (or 4 votes, a majority as expected) • 2 Seats Open = 7 / (2 + 1) = 7 / 3 = 2.33
• 3 Seats Open = 7 / (3 + 1) = 7 / 4 = 1.75
• 4 Seats Open = 7 / (4 + 1) = 7 / 5 = 1.40
How The Computer Determines
The Number Of Votes Needed To Win
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• On July 28, 2026, the City Council considered appointments to the new Housing & Human Services Commission
• There were 2 open seats on the Commission
• There were 4 nominees for the City Council to consider • A candidate needed more than 2.33 votes to guarantee a win under our WIGM Proportional RCV methodology
• Recall: 7 votes / (# of open seats + 1)
• 7 / (2 + 1) = 7 / 3 = 2.33
A Real-Life Example: Housing & Human Services Commission WIGM Proportional RCV Process On July 28, 2026
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September 8, 2026
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September 8, 2026
A Real-Life Example: Housing & Human Services Commission WIGM Proportional RCV Process On July 28, 2026
Round 1:
Councilmember’s first choices
2.33 Nominee A 5.0 ✓ seat
Nominee B 1.0
Nominee C 1.0
Nominee D 0.0
After Round 1, Nominee A has 5 votes, which is
well past the required 2.33 votes needed, and
wins the first of the two seats.
Nominee A then keeps 2.33 votes, and the spare
remaining 2.67 is shared proportionately with the
remaining Nominees (with each spare being
worth 0.534 votes, as follows: 2.67 / 5 = 0.534).
Round 2:
Spare votes move to other Nominees
2.33 Nominee A seat · 2.33
Nominee B 2.068 tied
Nominee C 2.068 tied
Nominee D out
sitting out 0.534
One Councilmember’s ballot was exhausted after
Round 1, therefore their remaining spare vote sits
out. Of the 4 remaining spare votes, two went to
Nominee B, and two went to Nominee C.
Nominee D got no votes and is now out of the
selection process.
Since neither Nominee B nor Nominee C have
reached the required 2.33 votes, one must drop
(there are only 2 available seats). The computer
checks which of the two Nominees were ranked
higher by Councilmembers, and the candidate
that was most broadly acceptable to the Council
wins the tiebreaker.
Round 3:
Nominee C secures second seat
2.33 Nominee A seat · 2.33
Nominee B out
Nominee C 4.136 ✓ seat
Nominee D out
sitting out 0.534
Since Nominee C, on aggregate, was ranked
higher by Councilmembers on their ballots than
Nominee B, the votes for Nominee B are
therefore moved to Nominee C, whom now has
4.14 votes to secure the second available
Commission seat.
The math also checks out:
2.33 + 4.136 + 0.534 = 7
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September 8, 2026
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• Given feedback received by the City, we are planning to make certain WIGM Proportional RCV process improvements associated with our selection of board members and commissioners
• Ensure that vote process is displayed live during the meeting on our broadcast channels
• Attach the round-by-round voting results to meeting minutes Process Improvements Moving Ahead
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• Tonight, the City Clerk will be coordinating the board and commission appointment process, which will be conducted with our WIGM Proportional RCV protocols
• The City Clerk will announce the applicants for each board or commission • Councilmembers will make nominations
• The City Clerk will then open the ballot
• Each Councilmember will then rank as many or as few nominees as they choose for each position
• The results will be displayed and read into the record Appointment Process This Evening
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Questions?
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