The D.C. Board of Elections on Friday unanimously ruled that a proposed initiative that would ask residents if ranked choice voting and open primaries should be adopted in city elections can be placed on the ballot.

The decision clears a major hurdle for proponents of the initiative, allowing them to move on to the next part of the process: collecting signatures from 5% of registered voters in the city, including 5% from those in five of the city’s eight wards, to actually get the measure on the ballot in 2024. That amounts to more than 26,000 valid signatures.

The initiative — which was first unveiled in May by the Make All Votes Count D.C. campaign — proposed that D.C. adopt partially open primaries in which independent voters would be able to cast ballots in the partisan primary of their choice. (In D.C., primaries are held for Democratic, Republican, and Statehood Green candidates for office, and only voters registered with those parties can participate.)

More notably, the initiative would introduce ranked choice voting starting in 2026. Under that system, voters can rank candidates in order of preference; if no one candidate wins an outright majority, the worst-performing contender is dropped and votes are recalculated using voters’ second choices, and so on until one candidate wins a majority of support.

Proponents argue that ranked-choice voting moves away from the current system where winners in crowded fields can win with a fraction of the vote, often forcing voters to choose candidates they think can win instead of those they might really support. They also say that the system of voting — which is used in New York City, Maine, Alaska, and was recently tested in Arlington County, Virginia — forces candidates to reach out to more voters, creates more civil campaigns, and results in winners who have a broader base of support.

As for open primaries, the initiative’s proponents say it would allow the 85,000 D.C. voters (representing 16% of the electorate) who currently are not registered with a political party to vote in primary elections, where many of the city’s political races are ultimately decided because of the overall dominance of Democrats in local elections. Some states , including Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, and West Virginia currently have semi-open primaries.

Critics — including officials and activists with the D.C. Democratic Party — say that open primaries would allow independent voters to unfairly influence partisan elections and that ranked choice voting would be too complicated for many voters, including those who are Black and low-income, thus effectively disenfranchising them. (Last week Arlington County officials cited this concern in their decision to discontinue ranked choice voting in November’s general election, after using it in the June Democratic primary.)

The elections board did not consider substantive arguments around ranked choice voting and open primaries, focusing instead on whether the proposed initiative complied with legal requirements that it not enshrine discrimination, violate the U.S. Constitution, or force the city into spending money. Democratic Party officials said it would do all three.

But the board disagreed, with Chairman Gary Thompson focusing on the argument that the ballot initiative would force the city into spending money to implement ranked choice voting. As currently written, the initiative would leave it up to the D.C. Council whether or not to pay for what the initiative calls for. “It remains a completely independent decision of the D.C. Council as to whether they would appropriate funds to implement it. That would remain completely within their discretion,” he said.

Proponents celebrated the board’s decision.

“I’m thrilled to be part of the local grassroots campaign to advocate for ending voter suppression by opening primary elections to independent voters like me and bringing ranked choice voting to my hometown, to make our elections fairer and hold politicians accountable to us all. I believe the much-needed electoral reforms outlined in the [initiative] will have a positive impact on the governance of the District of Columbia and we look forward to engaging and educating voters in the coming months,” said Lisa D.T. Rice, a Ward 7 ANC commissioner and the main proponent of the ballot initiative, which will be known formally as Initiative 83.

It remains to be seen what opponents of the initiative will do next; earlier this week, some floated the possibility of eventually appealing the board’s decision to D.C. Superior Court.