San José inched closer to allowing ranked choice voting in some city elections on Tuesday, after the City Council moved to put the issue before voters in two years.
The proposal for the March 2028 ballot would ask voters if ranked choice elections should be allowed to fill vacancies for council or mayor. Council members were considering putting the question on November’s ballot but abandoned those plans, citing cost concerns.
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If approved, San José would become the largest California city to adopt some form of ranked choice voting. The system asks voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-choice votes, second- and third-choice votes are redistributed to determine a winner — removing the need for the city to hold a subsequent runoff election.
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