And, we've been waiting about four years to get ranked-choice voting.

However, Lee appears short of the support needed in the city's ranked-choice voting system to win the race outright.

Predictions are complicated by the city’s unusual ranked-choice voting system, in which voters name their first, second and third choices.

But the Nov. 8 election was the first time researchers saw a geographic or perhaps ethnic difference in how people used ranked-choice voting.

Minneapolis uses ranked-choice voting, which lets people make up to three choices of candidates on their ballots.

And there already are indications that San Francisco voters might not fully understand ranked-choice voting.

The election was held using ranked-choice voting.

San Francisco voters use ranked-choice voting to elect the mayor, supervisors, and other elective officers.

Ranked-choice voting allows voters to cast ballots for their top three choices and rank them by preference.

"Now, some will say this ranked-choice voting has improved collegiality and cooperation among the candidates," Herrera said.

"The people of this city years ago voted for ranked-choice voting. ...

Supervisor Sean Elsbernd said he planned to ask voters to repeal ranked-choice voting in 2012.

This is the first Board of Supervisors election in San Francisco to implement ranked-choice voting.

Charter Amendment 3 calls for removing the provisions of Ranked-Choice Voting.

Ranked-choice voting, also known as instant-runoff voting, allows San Franciscans to pick first, second and third choice candidates.

He ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of San Francisco in the 2011 election, finishing third in the City's ranked-choice voting system.

Some of the reforms that Mr. Richie mentions could ameliorate problems in the selection of a president, but ranked-choice voting is not among them.

It is in crowded or close races where ranked-choice voting most sways outcomes, says Corey Cook, a politics professor at the University of San Francisco.

And there is new evidence that many voters do not understand ranked-choice voting, which has led to some ballots being invalidated in numbers high enough possibly to affect the outcome.

When asked whether ranked-choice voting has worked well for San Francisco, Mr. Arntz said, “I guess it depends if your candidate wins or not.”

Jones was there to pick up some brochures that explain the ranked-choice voting system—also known as the instant runoff—so she could better understand the process before returning to cast her vote.

Variations of the system exist in a few places, including Cambridge, Mass., where the City Council and school board are elected by proportional representation, which includes ranked-choice voting.

RANKED-CHOICE voting is not new.

For these reasons, it is not surprising that Burlington, Vt., and Aspen, Colo., two cities that tried out ranked-choice voting, have now repealed it.

It was the first mayoral election in San Francisco history to use instant-runoff voting, also known as ranked-choice voting, so that there would be no need for a run-off.