Supervisor Carmen Chu: Free Day at Museum

How Ranked-Choice Voting Works
San Francisco began using ranked-choice voting after voters passed an amendment to the City Charter in 2002. Given the numerous questions about how ranked-choice voting works, we are providing a brief overview of the system in San Francisco.

Ranked-choice voting applies when electing a mayor, sheriff, district attorney, city attorney, treasurer, assessor-recorder, public defender, and members of the SF Board of Supervisors. Voters may, but are not required to, select up to three candidates in each of these races. If there are fewer than three candidates in a race, voters should leave the remaining fields blank. If a voter selects the same candidate more than once, that vote will only count once.

Once it is time to count the votes, every first-choice selection is counted. If a candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes (more than 50 percent), then that candidate is declared winner of the race. However, if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, then the candidate with the fewest number of first-choice votes is eliminated from the race. Voters who selected the eliminated candidate as their first choice will have their vote transferred to their second choice. The votes then get recounted, and any remaining candidate who receives more than 50 percent of the vote is declared the winner. If no remaining candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, the process of eliminating candidates and transferring votes to the next ranked candidate is repeated until one candidate has a winning majority.

A voter's second-choice vote is only counted if the first-choice candidate is eliminated. A voter's third-choice vote is only counted if both the first-choice and second-choice candidates have been eliminated.

For more information about ranked-choice voting, you can visit the SF Department of Election's website at www.sfgov.org/election or call (415) 554-4375, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Polling Sites
Due to an error by the vendor that prints the ballots for the city's Department of Elections, about 115,000 voters received the wrong information about their designated polling site for Election Day. Most have been told that their polling place is near City College of San Francisco on Howth Street. The Department of Elections has been sending out correction notices to voters to inform them of the correct polling stations and you should have received a corrected notice already. You can also find the correct location of your polling site at: http://gispubweb.sfgov.org/website/pollingplace.

District 4 Free Day at the de Young Museum - Nov. 12
All District 4 residents can visit the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum free of charge on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 9:30 a.m. – 5:15 p.m. Residents must present a valid ID at the entrance for free general admission to the permanent collections. Please note that there will be a "Masters of Venice" exhibition on view that day, which requires a $10 surcharge.

Supervisor Carmen Chu can be reached at (415) 554-7460 or chustaff@sfgov.org.