Memphis Will Use RCV in City Council Elections in 2019

When Memphis, Tennessee Voters head to the Polls to pick their City Council Members in 2019, they won't have to worry about participating in the Costly, often inconvenient Runoff Election. These Elections are Non-Partisan

Ten years after voters approved Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV), the Shelby County Election Commission plans to begin RCV for Council Elections in October 2019, Elections Administrator Linda Phillips said Thursday. The change means Memphis Voters will Rank their Top Three choices in the General Election, sidestepping a Runoff.

Voters will pick Three Candidates as their first, second, and third choice. Election Machines will count the first choices; if no candidate receives a majority of votes, Election Staff will eliminate the Candidate with the fewest votes. Staff will then Recount, adding in the Second Choices of Voters whose first pick was Eliminated. That process will repeat until a Candidate has received a Majority of the votes. After explaining the process, Phillips added: "We're going to have to spend a lot of money on voter education."

Voters Approved RCV in a 2009 City Charter Amendment, but the Commission and its Staff didn't think they had the Equipment to implement the change, not realizing no new Equipment was needed, Phillips said. So the change didn't happen. "I really think it came out of misunderstanding how the process could work — or would work," she said.

Eliminating Runoff Elections was an easy sell to Voters, most of whom don't turn out for Runoff Elections, and is expected to save Taxpayer Dollars. Phillips said the 2015 Council Runoff Cost an estimated $360,000, but only 15,000 of 264,000 voters, 5.8%, turned out. In other words, each vote in that election cost $24 in Taxpayer Money. "That's a pretty staggeringly high cost per vote," she said.

The next step for the commission is to organize a large-scale, internal Mock Election for early 2019 to work out any kinks in the system and give Officials an idea of how long the process will take, Phillips said.

Meanwhile, the City Council will need to approve Ordinances answering a number of Policy Questions, including whether to allow RCV for the Six Super District Races or just for the Seven Single-Member Districts. Another question for the Council is whether a Majority of votes means the Majority of people who Voted, or a Majority of Voters whose Candidates haven't already been Eliminated from consideration

"There's a number of policy choices that have to be decided," Phillip said.











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