Honolulu voters will decide in November whether to overhaul how they pick their mayor, city council members and prosecutor, with a ranked-choice voting proposal now facing organized opposition from local Republicans. The charter amendment would let voters rank candidates by preference instead of choosing just one, and it has become one of the more contested items on a crowded local ballot.
The measure is a charter amendment specifically for Honolulu elections, and it would apply only to nonpartisan county races, according to Hawaii News Now. Under the system, sometimes called ranked voting, voters could list a second, third or fourth choice candidate rather than casting a ballot for only one contender. Voters would not be required to rank beyond their preferred pick, either — they could still support a single candidate by simply marking preference number one, per the station's reporting.
Hawaii News Now analyst Colin Moore called the ranked-voting question for mayor, council and city prosecutor the most dramatic of several proposed Honolulu charter changes on this year's ballot. Trey Gortner, a member of the Honolulu Charter Commission, said the system allows a voter to show their true preferences rather than settling for a single, potentially strategic vote.
How the Rankings Would Work
Under ranked-choice voting generally, voters rank candidates in order of preference — first, second, third and so on — according to FairVote. If a voter's top choice cannot win, the ballot is redirected to count for that voter's next choice instead of being discarded. Elsewhere, the mechanics vary by jurisdiction: Portland's system, for instance, lets voters rank up to six candidates, according to Portland.gov, and in Maine, the first round of tabulation applies ranked-choice rules to ballots cast on Election Day, per the Maine Secretary of State. In Ramsey County, Minnesota, a candidate wins outright with an absolute majority of first-choice votes — 50% plus one — and the ranked-choice process continues only if no one reaches that threshold, according to Ramsey County election officials.
Supporters frame the change around eliminating what's known as the spoiler effect, which the same Hawaii News Now report describes as happening when two similar candidates compete for overlapping voters and split the vote, allowing a less-preferred candidate to win. Progressive and government-reform groups argue ranked voting eliminates that dynamic entirely. Moore said the system can also reduce the roughest form of campaigning, since candidates want to appeal broadly enough to pick up second-choice support rather than just energizing their base.
Republicans Say the System Threatens Their Path to Office
Ranked-choice voting is gaining popularity nationally, but it is also seen locally as a threat to Republican candidates, particularly in a heavily Democratic state like Hawaii, the station reports. Elijah Pierick, a Republican state representative for District 40, said ranked-choice voting would have affected his own election and that he would not have become a state representative under the system.
Pierick said the change could make it harder for conservatives to serve the public, and Republicans more broadly argue the current system of primaries and runoffs gives GOP-leaning candidates a fighting chance in a liberal-leaning state. Hawaii GOP Chair Shirlene Ostrov said ranked-choice voting introduces confusion to the ballot and argued voters should simply cast one vote, without being asked to rank candidates they don't support.
National Fight Over Ranked Voting Cuts Both Ways
The Honolulu debate mirrors a broader national tug-of-war. As of early 2026, 17 states had passed laws or constitutional amendments prohibiting ranked-choice voting, according to vote.direct, even as the system saw use in 14 cities and counties across seven states in the November 2025 elections, per the same source. Hawaii itself currently uses ranked-choice voting only narrowly, limited to special elections filling vacancies in federal and county offices.
Ranked voting has notched local wins in places like the District of Columbia, Bloomington, Minnesota, Oak Park and Peoria, Illinois, and Richmond, California, according to Michigan Advance, and FairVote is pushing campaigns to expand it to Albuquerque, Boston and Denver. D.C. voters approved ranked-choice voting for elections beginning in 2026 with more than 72% support, the outlet reported. But the system has also suffered setbacks: voters in Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon all rejected ballot measures that would have adopted it, according to Michigan Advance's reporting.
Notably, the system isn't a purely partisan tool in either direction — Virginia Republicans used ranked-choice voting to nominate Glenn Youngkin at a 2021 state convention, where he won after six rounds of counting with 55% of the vote, per Michigan Advance. Nationally, ranked-choice voting is used statewide in Alaska and Maine and in major localities including New York City and San Francisco. Alaska adopted the system alongside other democracy reforms in a 2020 ballot measure and first used it statewide in 2022, according to the Campaign Legal Center, which also cites a study finding turnout in ranked-choice elections rose by 10% after accounting for other factors, and argues the system can eliminate the need for costly runoff elections.
One of Many Items on a Packed Ballot
The ranked-voting question is just one of 20 charter amendment questions Honolulu voters will face this fall, and other Hawaii counties have their own proposed amendments on their respective ballots. The statewide ballot additionally includes two state constitutional amendments, according to Hawaii News Now's reporting. The station's Fans of Democracy podcast has reviewed all of the proposed charter amendments and is available on Hawaii News Now's digital and streaming platforms for voters looking for a deeper breakdown before they head to the polls.
