Ranked choice comes up when a board election produces a winner that most members did not want. Four candidates run, the vote splits, and somebody takes the seat with 28% while the other 72% is spread across people with more in common with each other than with the winner.
Instant runoff fixes that specific problem and nothing else. It is worth understanding exactly what it does before putting it to your members, because the explaining is the hard part, not the counting.
1Understand what the count actually does
Members rank the candidates in order of preference. Every ballot counts for its first choice. If a candidate has more than half of the votes, they win and the count is over.
If nobody has more than half, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and every ballot that was counting for them moves to the next name still standing on that ballot. That repeats until somebody is over half of the ballots still counting. The result is a winner most voters were willing to accept, rather than the one who happened to lead a split field.
2Decide whether your election has the problem it solves
Ranked choice earns its complexity when you regularly have three or more candidates for one seat, or when members complain about vote splitting, or when the board has been running second-round elections to get a majority. It saves you the second round.
It is not worth it for two-candidate contests, where it changes nothing, and it does not fix low turnout, an unrepresentative candidate pool, or a disputed eligibility list. If the argument at your last election was about who was allowed to stand, ranked choice is the wrong tool and the nomination process is the right one.
3Check your bylaws, and change them if you must
Many bylaws specify the method, often with a phrase like "a plurality of the votes cast" or "a majority of those present and voting". If yours name a method, switching requires the amendment process in your documents, and doing the vote first and the amendment later is how a result gets challenged.
While you are there, settle the details your bylaws probably do not cover: whether ranking every candidate is required, what happens to a ballot whose remaining choices are all eliminated, and how a tie is broken.
4Explain it to members before the ballot, not on it
Send a short explanation with the notice, in plain words. Rank the candidates in the order you would like to see them win. If your first choice cannot win, your ballot counts for your next choice. Ranking somebody second never hurts your first choice.
That last sentence is the one people need, because the fear that a second preference somehow works against a first preference is the most common objection you will get.
5Publish the rounds, not just the winner
Report the count round by round: the first preferences for each candidate, who was eliminated in each round, and where their ballots went. A member who sees the rounds can follow how the winner got there. A member who only sees the winner has to take it on trust, which is exactly what you were trying to avoid.
Ballot counts single-seat ranked contests by instant runoff and puts the round-by-round tallies in the certification report, alongside the rest of the record.
Before you switch
- Confirm your bylaws allow it, or amend them first.
- Decide whether members must rank every candidate. Usually they should not have to.
- Decide what happens when a ballot's remaining choices are all eliminated.
- Write down the tie rule.
- Send a plain-language explanation with the notice, including that ranking a second choice cannot hurt a first.
- Make sure your system can report each round, not just the final winner.
- Use it only for single-seat contests unless your system supports the single transferable vote.
General guidance, not legal advice. Whether your association may change its voting method, and how, is governed by your bylaws and by the law that applies to your organization.