UPDATED: With half the ballots counted, voters leaning towards ranked choice voting

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — Those who voted by mail or who voted early in Peoria County gave their approval to the concept of ranked choice voting, a measure that would allow voters to rank their candidates in order of preference.

The practice of "ranked choice" voting is only advisory. The non-binding referendum has 18,449 yes votes compared to 9,397 no votes. That's roughly a 2-1 margin with about 52% of the ballots counted.

Nearly 2,700 ballots did not express an opinion on the measure which asks local lawmakers to offer a statewide proposal for the voting method.

Only two states in the nation have ranked choice voting, but more than 60 local jurisdictions in the country have it, including Springfield, the state's capital city.

Ranked voting works like this. If there is more than two candidates, a person can "rank" their vote in order of preference. Then, the voting goes in rounds. First, all the first-place votes are counted.

If no one gets more than 50%, then the person getting the lowest number of votes is dropped and the votes are redone in order of preference.

That continues until a person gets more than 50% and wins the election.

This story will be updated.