Officials Repair Glitch in Voting Software

Elections officials fixed a software glitch Friday that had temporarily paralyzed a tally of votes cast under a novel voting method.

The method, known as “ranked choice” or “instant runoff” voting, allows voters to select a first, second and third choice. If no one wins 50% of the votes when the first choices are tallied, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated. The second choice of those voters is then added to the remaining candidates’ tallies. The process continues until a majority winner emerges.

First choices for Board of Supervisor seats were reported on election night. But voter turnout was so high that the computer system was unable to process the tallies Wednesday.

After approval from the secretary of state’s office was granted Friday, the software problem was corrected, said San Francisco Elections Department Director John Arntz.