Ranked Choice Bedlam in a 2022 Oakland School Director Election
arXiv:2303.05985
Abstract
The November 2022 ranked choice election for District 4 School Director in Oakland, CA, was very interesting from the perspective of social choice theory. The election did not contain a Condorcet winner and exhibited downward and upward monotonicity paradoxes, for example. Furthermore, an error in the settings of the ranked choice tabulation software led to the wrong candidate being declared the winner. This article explores the strange features of this election and places it in the broader context of ranked choice elections in the United States.