Irvine voters are slated to change the way they elect city council members starting in 2028, according to the latest election results from the OC Registrar of Voters, as city leaders continue grappling with a rocky budget.
While ballots are still being counted, Irvine’s Measure D — which would change the city’s current election system to a new method known as ranked choice voting — is on track to pass.
According to the latest election results, the measure is passing with about 52.7% “yes” votes counted so far. Nearly 40,000 residents voted to approve the new voting method, while about 35,000 residents voted “no.”
Ranked choice voting has been criticized by opponents for being confusing and expensive to implement, while supporters argue it gives long-shot candidates a better chance to receive votes.
Irvine currently uses a plurality voting method for their district-based city council elections.
Plurality voting is the system that every other city in Orange County uses and what most voters are familiar with.
In a plurality voting system for city council district elections, residents cast a single vote for their top-choice candidate that’s running in the district where they live. After votes are counted, the top vote-getter wins that seat.
In a ranked choice voting system, residents are able to rank candidates in order of preference.
If three candidates are running for the same district, then voters who live in that district are able to rank all three people — choosing their first-, second- and third-place candidate.
When votes are being counted, the first-choice votes are tallied initially. If a candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, then that candidate wins.
If no candidate gets 50% of the vote initially, then the last-place candidate is thrown out and second-choice votes are added to the count. The process continues until a candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, which is necessary to win in a ranked choice city council election.
Ranked choice voting, also referred to as an instant runoff voting system, does not require residents to vote more than once.
For more information about how ranked choice voting works, click here.
“I’m thrilled that we will have ranked choice voting,” Councilmember Kathleen Treseder wrote in a text message to Voice of OC Monday afternoon. “For years, we have had bad actors in the city run spoiler candidates to manipulate city elections. The residents will be much better off now.”
Treseder wrote the argument in support of ranked choice voting that appeared with the ballot information for Irvine voters.
Councilmember James Mai wrote the argument in opposition, which emphasized costs plus Irvine’s rocky budget and projected structural deficit that could reach $47 million by 2030.
“A council majority put this experiment on that ballot with no idea what it will cost,” reads Mai’s argument in opposition of the measure, written before the election.
“The Orange County Registrar of Voters has confirmed he does not have a state-certified system capable of running a ranked-choice election,” Mai’s argument continues. “He cannot say what it would cost or how long. The city’s estimates came not from the registrar — but from ranked-choice voting advocacy groups. Those estimates already top $750,000 — before voter education, before county system upgrades, before anything goes wrong.”
No other city in Orange County uses ranked choice voting, although Huntington Beach may be heading in that direction after a judge ordered the city to shift to the system.
Some cities in California — like San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley — have already adopted ranked choice voting.
The ranked choice voting system in Irvine would be subject to a cost limit of 0.23% of the city’s general fund budget for the fiscal year that it’s rolled out.
According to the city attorney’s analysis of the measure, that would be about $717,000 based on this year’s budget, but the actual cap would depend on the general fund budget in 2028.
If costs to implement ranked choice voting are more than 0.23% of the general fund budget in 2028, then it won’t go into effect.
Councilmember Melinda Liu said she hopes the new voting method will be the right investment for the city in a Monday afternoon phone call.
“I’m glad that Irvine voters had the chance to choose how they would elect representatives,” she said. “That was why I agreed to have this on the ballot, because it’s fundamentally something that will change how we choose local representatives.”
Voter Choice Irvine, a resident group that supported the measure, said they’re working on a campaign to help educate voters ahead of 2028.
“Ranked choice voting means voters can vote their conscience every time, without fear of wasting their vote,” Director of Voter Choice Irvine Branda Lin said in a Nov. 5 statement. “With RCV in Irvine, voters will have more choice, campaigns will be more positive, and winners will always have majority support. That’s a big difference from our current system, where spoiler candidates and vote-splitting routinely result in candidates winning with only a third of the vote.”
The new election system comes as city leaders continue grappling with a projected budget deficit that could reach $37 million in less than two years.
Staff members are rolling out a plan that looks to decrease spending by $27 million and increase revenue by $10 million in order to dodge the financial crisis. They plan to accomplish this by eliminating vacant positions, increasing a slew of fees and canceling certain city-sponsored events.
While it’s unclear how much it will cost Irvine to roll out ranked choice voting, they will likely have to take on some of the costs for the OC Registrar of Voters to implement new technology to allow for the system, since no other Orange County city uses the method.
According to estimates from Cal RCV and the RCV Resource Center presented to city leaders over the summer, costs to implement ranked choice voting for 2028 could be as low as $230,600 or as high as $710,440.
Voter education and outreach to teach residents about ranked choice voting could cost anywhere from $189,000 to $316,000 for 2028, according to those estimates.
