Top-four primary

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A top-four primary^[1] or top-four ranked-choice voting^[2] is an election method using a nonpartisan blanket primary where up to four candidates, those with the most votes, advance from a first round of FPTP voting, regardless of the political party. The round two (general) election, held some weeks later, uses instant-runoff voting (IRV, also known as ranked-choice voting, RCV) to confirm a winner among the top set of candidates.^[3][4]

The Final-Four Voting system was first proposed by Katherine Gehl, an American business leader turned political innovator and philanthropist, and Michael Porter, professor at Harvard Business School, in a report they wrote for Harvard Business School in 2017. In “Why Competition in the Politics Industry is Failing America,” they made the case for an open, single-ballot top-four primary followed by an instant-runoff voting general election.^[5]

Its first use was in 2022 Alaska's at-large congressional district special election. It can be seen as a replacement to the blanket primary which advances only the top-two candidates. It was first advocated by FairVote in 2012^[6][7] with a statutory model proposed in 2015.^[8]

A top-four primary can be seen as a variation of a two-round system where the second round (general election) is always held, even if a candidate gains a majority in the first (primary) round. A candidate receiving 20% of the primary vote is logically guaranteed to pass a top-four primary.^[9]

One variation, called Final Five Voting, allows five candidates to pass the open primary.^[10]