Research by Professor DeLeon Finds Ranked-Choice Voting Helps SF Progressives

48 HILLS (SAN FRANCISCO) -- Interestingly, in a paper titled “Do December runoffs help or hurt progressives?”, Professor Richard DeLeon from San Francisco State University, the author of the acclaimed book on San Francisco politics “Left Coast City,” found that in November elections, for every 100 voters who turned out in the progressive precincts, 107 turned out in the conservative precincts. But in the December 2001 citywide runoff election for city attorney — which Welch has hailed as an example of how allegedly surging progressive turnout won the day in December elections — for every 100 voters who turned out in the progressive precincts, 126 turned out in the conservative precincts. DeLeon concluded: “If San Francisco had used [ranked-choice voting] in November, Herrera most likely would have won by an even greater margin. In November, the liberal/progressive candidates for city attorney won a combined 60 percent of the vote. It is highly likely that nearly all of those votes in an instant runoff would have stayed in-house and transferred to Herrera. In the December runoff, however, Herrera won with only 52 percent of the vote. Thus, due to the proportionally greater decline in progressive voter turnout, Herrera probably lost approximately 8 percent of his potential vote, making the election close.”