In ranked-choice voting, residents rank each candidate in order from their first to last choice. When tallying ballots, a process is used to eliminate the candidate with the least amount of first-choice votes and then redistribute those votes to the voters’ second-choice candidates. The process continues until there is a candidate with more than 50% of the votes.

For example, Vineyard had two city council seats open and used ranked-choice voting this year. According to unofficial results, Jacob Holdaway and Sara Cameron are poised to win the races.

To reach these results, two elimination rounds occurred. In the first round, Holdaway rose to the top, ending with 65% of the total after four other candidates were eliminated and had their votes redistributed.

In the second round, Holdaway was removed from the elimination process because he came out ahead in Round 1. In Round 2, if a voter had Holdaway as their first choice on the ballot, their second choice was then considered first. In this round, no eliminations occurred as Sara Cameron had 52% of the vote from the start.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Utah County had processed 91% of ballots received, according to the county’s website.

Four other Utah County cities used ranked-choice voting this year — Lehi, Woodland Hills, Genola and Payson. The following results are unofficial, with ballots still being tallied:

Lehi 

• Round 1: Paige Albrecht with 3,010 or 50.9%.
• Round 2: Michelle Stallings with 2,983 or 51.3%.
• Round 3: Heather Newall with 2,890 or 53.8 %.

Payson 

• Round 1: Ryan Rowley with 1,094 or 51.7%.
• Round 2: Brian Hulet with 1,161 or 56%.
• Round 3: Anne Moss with 1,011 or 54.5%.

Genola

• Round 1: Curtis Thomas with 165 or 58.1%.
• Round 2: Stan Judd with 144 or 53.9%

Woodland Hills

• Round 1: Kari Malkovich with 175 or 51.3%
• Round 2: Benjamin Hillyard with 180 or 54.3%
• Round 3: Brian Hutchings with 202 or 63.7%

To find more election results, including ranked-choice voting, visit Utah County’s website at www.utahcounty.gov/dept/clerk/elections/results.html.