Ranked choice voting

Ranked choice voting that finds the option everyone can live with

Majority voting can elect a minority favourite. Ranked choice finds the option with the broadest genuine support — and Chooseday handles all the instant-runoff rounds automatically, with a full elimination breakdown so your team understands how the winner emerged.

Try ranked choice voting freeSee how it works
🔒app.chooseday.co/decisions/q3-offsite
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Closed
9 of 9 voted · Closed Tuesday
🏆
Cape Town wins!
Decision closed · outcome logged
🏔️Cape Town
68%
🏖️Zanzibar
25%
🏙️Nairobi
7%
Sound familiar?

Why group decisions break down

If any of these feel familiar, Chooseday was built for you.

01
The most vocal option wins, not the best one

When 6 people split evenly across 3 options and 4 people support a 4th, majority voting elects the option only 4 people truly wanted. Ranked choice finds the option that 8 or 9 people can genuinely support.

02
Split votes produce bad outcomes

Two similar options (Option A and Option B) each get 25% of votes, while Option C gets 30% and wins. But if A and B voters had been asked for their second choice, most would prefer each other over C. Ranked choice prevents this spoiler effect.

03
No one trusts a plurality result

When the winner only got 28% of first-place votes, team members who backed other options feel overridden. Ranked choice produces a winner with majority support — which means real buy-in, not grudging acceptance.

How it works

From question to answer in minutes

01
Create a decision and select ranked choice

Name your decision, add your options (works best with 4 or more), and select "Ranked choice" as the voting mode. Enable anonymous mode if needed.

02
Participants rank options in order of preference

Voters drag and drop options into their preferred order — 1st choice at the top, least preferred at the bottom. They can rank all options or stop partway through.

03
Chooseday runs all the IRV rounds automatically

When voting closes (or reaches the deadline), Chooseday runs the instant-runoff algorithm: eliminates the last-place option, redistributes those votes, and repeats until one option has a majority.

04
Full elimination breakdown shown to your team

Results show not just the winner but every elimination round — how votes shifted, which options were redistributed, and how the winner emerged. Complete transparency for complete buy-in.

Try it free →
Features

Everything your team needs

Built specifically for group decisions — not adapted from a survey tool.

Drag-and-drop ranking interface

Participants rank options in intuitive drag-and-drop order. No numbered inputs, no confusion — just move options into the order you prefer.

Automatic IRV rounds

Chooseday runs all elimination rounds automatically when voting closes. No manual calculation, no spreadsheet. The algorithm handles everything.

Full round-by-round breakdown

After voting closes, see exactly how many first-place votes each option had in every round, which options were eliminated, and how redistributed votes shifted the results.

Anonymous ranked choice voting

Enable anonymous mode and individual rankings are completely hidden. Only aggregate results per round are shown — individual orderings are never exposed.

Works for any team size

Ranked choice voting in Chooseday scales from a 3-person founding team to a 300-person organisation. Voters access the ranking page via a shareable link.

Free on all plans

Ranked choice voting is not a premium feature. It's available on the free Chooseday plan with no voter limits and no expiry.

Use cases

Who uses Chooseday

Teams across every industry — from startups to communities.

Social proof

What teams are saying

We always used to have the same fight at planning — the loudest person's option won. Ranked choice gave everyone a real say and the result actually had team buy-in.

SA
Sola A
CPO, Paystack

The elimination round breakdown was the key thing for us. People could see exactly how the winner emerged, which meant nobody felt cheated.

TO
Tunde O
Engineering Lead, Andela

We use ranked choice for quarterly priority-setting. It surfaces the option that most people can support, not the one that one vocal person pushed hardest for.

AO
Amaka O
Team Lead, Flutterwave
FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Ranked choice voting (also called instant-runoff voting or preferential voting) is a method where voters rank options in order of preference instead of picking just one. The winner is determined by eliminating the option with the fewest first-place votes and redistributing those votes to each voter's next preference, repeating until one option has a majority.

Chooseday runs the full instant-runoff voting algorithm automatically. When voting closes, it counts first-place votes, eliminates the last-place option, redistributes those ballots to voters' next preferences, and repeats until a majority winner emerges. The full round-by-round breakdown is shown to all participants so they can see how the winner emerged.

Use ranked choice when you have 4 or more options and want to find the option with the broadest support — not just the one with the most passionate minority. It's especially useful when multiple strong options might split the vote, or when you want the winner to have genuine majority support rather than a plurality.

Yes. You can enable anonymous mode for any ranked choice vote. Individual rankings are hidden from all participants and the decision creator. Only the aggregate results and elimination rounds are shown.

Yes. Ranked choice voting (IRV) is available on all Chooseday plans including the free tier. You can run ranked choice decisions with up to 5 active decisions on the free plan.

Yes. After voting closes, Chooseday displays the full round-by-round elimination breakdown — which option was eliminated in each round, how many first-place votes each option had, and how redistributed votes affected the outcome. This transparency is important for team buy-in.

Find the option your whole team can support — free

Automatic IRV rounds, anonymous rankings, full elimination breakdown. Free forever for small teams.

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