Price grad tests ranked choice voting in student government election

Voters sometimes feel pressured to make difficult decisions at the ballot box, choosing between the “lesser of two evils” in a close race instead of picking, say, a third-party candidate who’s unlikely to win. 

But what if voters could pick a candidate they preferred without feeling like their ballot would have no influence on the outcome? Nivea Krishnan, a recent graduate of the USC Price School of Public Policy, believes a ranked-choice voting system – in which voters rank candidates in order of preference – could be the answer.

“Let’s say I ranked a third-party candidate first and a Democrat second. If that third-party candidate doesn’t get enough votes, my vote doesn’t get discarded. It gets moved to my second choice,” Krishnan explained. “It’s more empowering for the average voter, especially in the system that is so two-party dominated.”

Krishnan, who earned a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy, researched ranked choice voting systems for her undergraduate thesis. But she didn’t stop at academic theory. She put the idea into practice during this year’s USC Undergraduate Student Government (USG) election. 

Master of Public Policy

Advocate & Innovate for a More Just World

Effective public policy has the power to disentangle increasingly complex global and domestic challenges. With an MPP from USC, you will have that power too.

Find Out More

As USG’s Chief Justice, Krishnan oversaw the February election for president and vice president, implementing a ranked-choice system. The pilot project was challenging but ultimately successful, and USG will continue ranked-choice voting next year, said Susanna Andryan, the new Chief Justice. 

“Conducting the elections through ranked-choice voting and boosting voter turnout would not have been possible without Nivea’s leadership,” Andryan said. 

Krishnan – who also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences – said a key priority was making sure the new system didn’t harm voter turnout. One criticism of ranked choice voting is that it can potentially dissuade people from voting by complicating the election. But voter turnout was slightly higher than previous elections, thanks in part to USG’s voter outreach and education efforts.

“The fact that turnout didn’t decrease is a sign that, if there was voter confusion, it didn’t rise to a significant amount to tank voter turnout, which I thought was good,” Krishnan said. “I think a takeaway is that young people really understand ranked-choice voting.”

The new system proved to make an impact on the outcome. After all the first-choice rankings were tallied, no candidate had the more than 50% of the vote needed to be declared the winner. Under USG’s ranked choice system, the ticket with the lowest number of first-choice votes was eliminated and their voters’ second-choice rankings were counted. The winning ticket didn’t initially have the most first-place votes, but it won after second-choice votes were added. 

“People appreciated that they could have their preferences more represented on the ballot,” said Krishnan, who conducted a survey after the election. “And I appreciated that they didn’t find the voting instructions confusing, so that was also important for me.”

Krishnan has now become an expert of sorts in ranked-choice voting. She presented her research at a March conference for the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a think tank that examines past successes and failures of the nation’s highest offices. Michael Thom, a USC Price School associate professor who supervised Kirshnan’s undergraduate thesis, praised her work on ranked-choice voting. 

“Nivea’s innovative thesis explored how governments and other organizations can improve election outcomes by gathering more data from voters – data that ensures candidates with the broadest support win,” Thom said. 

Krishnan, who won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant to teach in Madrid this August, wants to continue ranked-choice research, believing the emerging voting system offers a brighter future for elections. 

“It’s cool to see that the research is something that people are interested in,” she said. “And it’s very energizing to be able to visualize something better.”