When Oakland voters head to the polls next week, their process will be different than most Bay Area voters.
That's because the city's crowded mayoral race -and other key races will be decided using rank choice voting.
Some have called it a more equitable way to elect officials. Others say it's simply confusing and leads to a winner that may not be the majority's top choice.
“I think the system is crazy,” said Oakland resident Lilian Mafra.
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“It helps eliminate the worst part about politics,” said Oakland resident Rick Benson.
Ranked-choice means instead of voting for one candidate, voters rank their top five choices.
On Election Day, if any candidates gets more than 50% of voters “first choices” they win outright.
But that rarely happens instead, that's where ranking comes in….
The candidate with the lowest total votes is eliminated and their votes are distributed to their "second" choice.
That process repeats until someone gets over 50% of the vote.
It's a system that's been debated and dissected.
Some say it's a better way. Others say it's nothing but confusion.
“I think you should just go to your candidate, period. You should not have choices, one, two, three, four, five, why?” Mafra said.
Just last week, mayoral candidates Loren Taylor and Treva Reid, two of the 10 candidates running joined forces, telling voters to put them as their first and second choices… In whichever order they prefer.
The goal is to make sure at least one of them gets in and their chief rival doesn’t.
The process cuts out the need for a primary election- cutting election cost, but NBC Bay Area Political Analyst Larry Gerston explains it also means the winner may not necessarily be the majority's top choice.
“That kind of confusion. I think that people sometimes suffer but others will swear by it and say that this is the way we get moderated answers because nobody necessarily gets what he or she wants,” he said.
Velena Jones has the full story in the video above.
