Political Science students will have the opportunity to participate in a study by the Public Research Institute on voter response to the new ranked-choice voting in the November election, said political science professor Francis Neely.

Neely and professor Corey Cook are the principal researchers on the study and will be asking for student volunteers in the political science department to collect data as exit pollers on Election Day, survey people who send in absentee ballots, while they also learn how research design in political science works, Neely said.

Ranked-choice voting, also called instant runoff voting, allows voters to rank the candidates on the ballot first, second and third. The votes are counted in rounds, and the candidate with the most votes and at least 50 percent of the overall vote would win automatically.

If no candidate received fifty percent of the vote, the second choice on the ballot is counted and added to the vote count of the top candidates, and the last place finisher is disqualified.

The process is repeated until the candidate with the most votes also receives 50 percent of the overall votes.

The study is “all but certain” to be approved by the Board of Supervisors and given a $15,000 budget, said Neely.

When the study receives final approval, outside funding will still be sought, he said.

“Even with volunteers it's hard to do a thorough study on that budget,” said Neely.

San Francisco has already spent $776,000 on educational pamphlets, advertisements and community meetings, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Concerns about ranked-choice voting include whether or not voters will understand the ballots and be able to mark them correctly, said Neely.

When the study is developed, exit poll questions will most likely ask voters who they voted for, whether they had problems understanding or filling out the ballots and how they liked the new voting system.

The study will help gauge the success or failure of ranked-choice voting among voters themselves.

Although it is more common in other countries, ranked-choice voting is not new to the United States. New York City, Ann Arbor and Cincinnati have all tried ranked-choice voting at various times. In San Francisco, only the Board of Supervisors will be on the ballot as ranked-choice, while the state and federal elections will not change.

San Francisco has several ranked-choice voting presentations scheduled in October all over San Francisco and an interactive demonstration available online, according to the Department of Elections website.

To get more information on ranked-choice voting and an interactive demonstration click here.