Ranked-choice voting may be the future of elections, but early implementations hit snags

• A mysterious malfunction with the custom computer software San Francisco is using to count ballots cast under the city's new "ranked-choice voting" system could delay efforts to declare the winners of four races for county supervisor.
• When the San Francisco Department of Elections on Wednesday tried to test run the program that is supposed to redistribute voters' second and third-place preferences among candidates who weren't eliminated in the first round, some of the votes didn't get counted and skewed the results, said director John Arntz.
• San Francisco is the first major city to implement ranked-choice voting, which is designed to eliminate run-off elections and to encourage third-party participation by allowing voters to list their first, second and third-place choices for municipal offices.
• Since officials needed several more days anyway to verify about 60,000 late absentee and provisional ballots, the unexpected snag has not yet delayed the final results, according to Artnz.
• Even before Tuesday's election, Arntz had warned it could take up to three weeks for his staff to complete and double-check the vote tallying process.
• Under state law, the department has until Nov. 30 to certify the election.
• Wednesday's glitch nevertheless was received as a minor public relations setback for the new system approved by San Francisco residents in March 2002.
• Back then, the pioneering experiment was referred to by its catchier synonym, "instant-runoff voting."
• Critics of ranked-choice voting seized upon the latest technological bottleneck as more evidence that the system discourages democracy rather than encourages it as supporters contend.
• One, incumbent Michela Alioto-Pier, was elected outright Tuesday because she earned 61 percent of the first-choice votes.
• We're early adopters of everything, so people here are probably more tolerant and patient of the first hiccups of implementing new technology," said Jason Alderman of the Bay Area Center for Voting Research.