Ranked‑Choice Voting Comes to D.C.: What to Know for the June 16 Mayoral Primary

Washington, D.C., is about to hold its first mayoral election under ranked-choice voting, a procedural change that could shape not just how residents cast ballots in the June 16 Democratic primary, but when the city learns who will replace Mayor Muriel Bowser.

The stakes are unusually high for a primary. Bowser announced on Nov. 25, 2025, that she would not seek a fourth term, saying, “With a grateful heart, I am announcing that I will not seek a fourth term.” Her decision created an open-seat race after a long tenure, and in a heavily Democratic city where the Democratic primary often effectively decides the mayoralty, the new voting system takes on added significance. Seven candidates have qualified for the ballot.

Under the District’s new rules, races with three or more candidates use ranked-choice voting. Instead of choosing just one candidate, voters may rank up to five in order of preference.

If one candidate wins a majority of first-choice votes, that candidate wins outright. If no one reaches a majority, the last-place candidate is eliminated and that candidate’s ballots are redistributed to each voter’s next ranked choice. The process repeats, round by round, until one candidate reaches a majority, according to the D.C. Board of Elections.

That means the initial vote totals released on election night may not settle the race, especially in a seven-candidate field. The Board of Elections has warned that final results may not be known that night. D.C. accepts mail ballots postmarked by Election Day and received up to 10 days later, and those ballots will be included in the ranked-choice count.

The field includes Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George; former D.C. Councilmember and at-large member Kenyan McDuffie; Gary Goodweather; Ernest E. Johnson; former councilmember Vincent Orange; Rini Sampath; and Hope Solomon. The two candidates drawing the most attention are Lewis George and McDuffie, whose support in later rounds could prove as important as their first-choice backing.

A CityCast DC/TrueDot poll released May 20 found Lewis George with 39% support, McDuffie with 34% and Goodweather with 7%, while the remaining candidates were in low single digits and many voters were still undecided. But ranked-choice voting makes the race harder to model than a standard plurality contest because lower-ranked preferences can reshape the standings after candidates are eliminated. As Ballotpedia reported in coverage of the poll, analyst Jon Cohen said McDuffie appeared to have “room to grow through ranked-choice transfers,” while cautioning that ranked-choice outcomes are “inherently harder to model than first-past-the-post elections.”

For voters, the practical takeaway is simple: they will be able to rank candidates rather than pick only one, and the winner may emerge only after additional counting. In a city where the Democratic primary is often the decisive election, that changes both the voting experience and the timeline for a result.

The new system stems from Initiative 83, which D.C. voters approved in November 2024. The measure required the District to begin using ranked-choice voting starting with the June 2026 primary, making this mayoral contest the first test of the system in a race that is likely to determine the city’s next mayor.