I recently asked Fairvote volunteers which cities/countries they point to as RCV done “right”. All of the places I’m familiar with have poor reputations for their politics (SF, Australia) or have had problems with it (NY’s democratic primary, Alaska).
All they could come up with is statistics that more women and people of color are elected with RCV, and there is not enough evidence yet that Approval voting will do the same.
Those studies also don't demonstrate any causality, only correlation. It seems not unlikely that districts willing to try an experimental voting method also are more interested in running diverse candidates.
All they could come up with is statistics that more women and people of color are elected with RCV, and there is not enough evidence yet that Approval voting will do the same.