Santa Clara County ponders joining cities like Oakland, SF in switch to ranked choice voting

SANTA CLARA COUNTY leaders this year may move forward with overhauling how they’re elected with a system called ranked choice voting.

The Board of Supervisors could discuss adopting the system in August. The change would rid the county supervisors, district attorney, sheriff and assessor of the need for primary elections that see low voter turnout, but still decide the outcome of certain races, either outright or by sending the top two vote getters to a November runoff. Instead, residents in a single election could select their first, second, third and so on choices for all candidates in the running for a given office. One county officeholder who could be impacted has already come out swinging against the idea.