Utah's new kind of ranked-choice voting could hurt political minorities - and sometimes even the majority

In 2019 two cities in Utah began using a type of ranked-choice voting for elections. And while ranked-choice voting is more effective in increasing minority representation than first past the post voting, Utah's version may be harmful to minorities, argue Jack Santucci and Benjamin Reilly. As votes under this system can 'cascade' downwards from the first winner to others from he same party or group, they write that ‘block-preferential’ voting could lead to unfair outcomes if adopted more widely.