Can current voting machines handle IRV ballots without improvements to hardware of software?
This depends on the specific jurisdiction and machines in use. The three primary election machine vendors in the United States have produced optical scan voting machines that have been used for ranked-choice elections in the United States. Although these systems are not ideal (some have a practical limit of three rankings per race, for example), they can be used. It is desirable to have these vendors upgrade their systems. Since ranked-ballot elections are rapidly becoming more common in the U.S. voting machine vendors will likely soon be selling fully compatible machines. There are also “work-around” options, such as those used in Cary (NC), in which only first choices were counted by existing voting machines, with a hand tally of alternate rankings only if there was no initial majority winner. A report discussing work-arounds for implementing statewide IRV elections that avoid the need to purchase updated voting equipment can be found here.
