Editor's Note: This analysis originally published on FairVote's website and has been republished on IVN with permission from the organization. 

On Tuesday, Oakland, CA used ranked choice voting (RCV) in special elections for mayor and City Council District 2 – marking Oakland’s 5th mayoral election using RCV. A 2024 poll found that 77% of Oakland voters are satisfied with the election method. 

In the mayoral election, candidates included former Oakland City Councilmember Loren Taylor, former Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Mindy Pechenuk, Elizabeth Swaney, and five others. Taylor and Lee were viewed as frontrunners, raising the most money and receiving the most notable endorsements.

In preliminary election results released last night, Loren Taylor is leading in the race for mayor, with 48.2% of first choices and 51.2% of votes in the RCV count. Barbara Lee is in second, with 45.7% of first choices and 48.8% of votes in the RCV count. 

Like most cities that use RCV, Oakland releases its preliminary RCV results on election night – on the same timeline as other results. Since California counts mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day, a large number of votes have yet to be counted. With more votes to count, either Taylor or Lee could win.

Notably, although mayoral candidate Tyron Jordan has withdrawn, his name still appears on the ballot. He has received over 1.5% of first choices, the third-most in the race. In a single-choice election, any votes for a withdrawn candidate would be “wasted.” However, with RCV, a voter who ranked a withdrawn candidate like Jordan first can have their vote count for a second choice.

In the City Council District 2 race, the six candidates were Reverend Kenneth Anderson, Harold Lowe, Kanitha Matoury, Kara Murray-Badal, Paula Thomas, and Charlene Wang. Wang and Murray-Badal raised the most money and received the most prominent endorsements.

Charlene Wang is leading in the preliminary ranked choice results for City Council, with 50.5% of first choices and 66.5% of votes in the RCV count. Murray-Badal has 26.1% of first choices and 33.5% of votes in the RCV count.

The Oakland special elections show that local organizations and candidates are embracing the opportunity to rank multiple candidates on their ballot. Barbara Lee encouraged voters to rank multiple candidates for mayor. Loren Taylor released a video with fellow candidate Elizabeth Swaney encouraging Oakland residents to vote, with Swaney encouraging voters to support multiple candidates in her accompanying post. The Alameda Labor Council and other labor or advocacy groups provided ranked endorsements for the City Council race.

Visit CalRCV today to help bring ranked choice voting to your California community, or find an RCV group in your state if you live elsewhere in the U.S.

This analysis of the Oakland mayoral election was last updated at 11:20am ET on April 16, 2025.