Judge Smacks Down Challenge to San Francisco's Ranked-Choice Voting

​A federal judge has rejected a legal challenge to San Francisco's system of "ranked-choice voting," in which voters can select their three preferred candidates in a race.

The lawsuit, filed by failed supervisorial candidate Ron Dudum, had asserted that the system was flawed insofar as it did not permit voters to rank every candidate running if they wanted, instead limiting them to three choices. Dudum cited his own 2006 loss to former supervisor Ed Jew -- now incarcerated on extortion charges -- as evidence that RCV did not work.

However, in a decision issued last week, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg wrote that although "a limitation to no more than three preferences in a large field of candidates does exert some burden on voting rights, it is not severe" and that "important government interests are well-served by the limitation."

Dudum had faced an uphill battle from the start with his lawsuit, with various organizations and electoral-reform advocates denouncing the suit as "sour grapes" over his failure to win the 2006 supervisor race (and Mayor Gavin Newsom's appointment of Carmen Chu to fill Jew's vacated seat instead of Dudum, the No. 2 finisher). As it stands, San Francisco still offers more voting leeway than the many states and municipalities in which voters can only cast a ballot for one candidate at a time.

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