The D.C. Board of Elections unanimously ruled last week that an initiative asking voters whether ranked-choice voting and open primaries should occur in city elections can appear on the 2024 ballot.

Make All Votes Count D.C. filed initial paperwork on the initiative in May, which would allow ranked-choice voting in 2026 and would grant voters registered as independents to vote in the partisan primary of their choice. Organizers must now collect 26,000 signatures — five percent of eligible voters — supporting the initiative in at least five of eight wards, according to the D.C. Board of Elections.

After the signatures are collected, the board of elections will verify the signatures and the measure will be certified for the ballot.

Ranked-choice voting occurs when voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a simple majority, the candidate with the fewest votes is cut from the race, and their votes are distributed to voters’ second choices. The process continues until one candidate has collected a majority of votes.

Arizona, Colorado and Kansas have adopted similar partially open primaries.