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My cat explains ranked-choice voting

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The election is less than one week away — but what’s sooner than that? Halloween. And what’s sooner than that? My cat’s birthday. 

Her name is Sally Carrera and we got her a month ago during a Halloween sale at the shelter. Yes, she was a discount cat. And yes, the shelter named her after the Porsche from the animated movie Cars. 

In honor of this very special day, I made everyone I know help me pick the best photo of Sally through ranked-choice voting. 

There were five photos to choose from, and endorsements were made. Mission Local’s donor engagement lead Vicky Anibarro ran attack ads on our office Slack against the photo of Sally reading Proust. Editor Lydia Chavez said she would vote for the photo of postpartum Sally because she “supports women.” 

Then ballots were filled out. Everyone could rank as many — or as few — photos as they wanted. But they couldn’t rank multiple photos first. That would disqualify their ballot.

The same rules apply in San Francisco’s election, which will have 13 mayoral candidates.

After all the ballots were cast, everyone’s first choice vote was counted. 

A bar chart shows percentage breakdowns with cat photos labeled: Postpartum 20%, Motherhood 20%, Friday 20%, Menace 30%, Productive Weekend 10%.
In ranked-choice voting, the candidate with the least number of first-choice votes is eliminated. Photo by Abigail Van Neely.

The photo with the least number of votes was eliminated. Proust-reading Sally was taken out of the running — a blow to scholarly cats everywhere. 

A black and white cat stands near a bouquet of flowers on a table, with more flowers, a book, and a bed in the background.
Sally Carrera enjoys Proust’s The Captive and The Fugitive. Photo by Abigail Van Neely.

Everyone who cast their first choice vote for the photo that was eliminated then had their second choice vote counted. 



Source: missionlocal.org

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