Carrying thousands of petitions in black cases, some stacked in a Radio Flyer red wagon, supporters of major changes to D.C. elections delivered more than 40,000 signatures to the Board of Elections in Navy Yard on Monday for a ballot initiative to bring ranked-choice voting to D.C. elections and to allow registered independents to vote in primaries.

If enough signatures are found to be valid, Initiative 83 would appear on the November ballot — and if voters approve it, I-83 could shake up D.C. elections. Under the proposal, the primaries would be opened up to thousands more people, while changing how votes are tabulated on election night. Currently, more than 70,000 registered independents can’t participate in any primaries, including the Democratic primary, which in deep-blue D.C. is often the decisive race. Meanwhile, ranked-choice voting would allow voters to rank candidates by preference, a method intended to ensure that the winner receives more than 50 percent of the vote.

“We want full democracy here in D.C.,” Lisa D.T. Rice, a Ward 7 advisory neighborhood commissioner who started the ballot initiative, said Monday, explaining why the two election changes are paired. “We need ranked-choice voting to make politicians accountable to us — and the 73,000 people who have been disenfranchised from voting.”

Addressing supporters Monday, Rice, a registered independent, grew emotional as she described why she was compelled to lead the initiative. “It is the right of independents to be able to vote in taxpayer-funded elections,” she argued. On primary Election Day last month, Rice stood outside the polls in Ward 7 wearing a placard that said, “I cannot vote today. Ask me why.”

But bringing ranked-choice voting to D.C. would likely be the biggest change, felt by all voters citywide. Rice pointed to the Ward 7 campaign to fill the seat being vacated by council member Vince Gray (D) as a prime example of why ranked-choice voting is needed: In the crowded 10-candidate Democratic primary, the winner, Wendell Felder, came away with only 23.7 percent of the vote.

“Let me tell you, 10 candidates — that was a gift to this movement,” Rice said, “because I didn’t have to explain, why ranked-choice voting? So many people said to me, ‘I didn’t know what to do. I think these four or five people are so good — I don’t know how to choose.’ Wouldn’t you like it if you could choose one and rank the rest? Every time, the answer was yes.”

But the movement also has plenty of opponents.

One signature gatherer, Adrian Salsgiver, said he asked Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) to sign the petition — but she declined, which Bowser’s office confirmed. During a May community meeting, Bowser had said she hopes “that nobody votes for that” if it gets on the ballot, calling ranked-choice voting a “bad idea, and it’s not necessary.”

Among the 17 D.C. Council candidates who participated in a Washington Post survey ahead of the June primary, only three said they supported the initiative (none of whom won). The D.C. Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the initiative from moving forward, believing only registered Democrats should participate in a Democratic primary and that the initiative violates their rights to freely associate with a political party. They also disagree that ranked-choice voting should be paired with allowing independents to vote in primaries on the ballot initiative. While a judge threw out the case in March, it’s on appeal.

The ball0t initiative process can be wonky. Here’s what to know about what’s next:

What needs to happen to get I-83 on the ballot?

To qualify for the ballot, the organizers must have collected signatures of at least 5 percent of all voters registered citywide — so about 22,500 signatures, organizers say. Of those, they also need support from at least 5 percent of the registered voters in five of the eight wards.

Rice said they are confident that at least 31,000 of the roughly 40,000 signatures submitted are from valid D.C. voters (others could be duplicates or from people who aren’t registered to vote), and that they got more than 5 percent of registered voters in every ward to sign the petition.

The D.C. Board of Elections said Monday that they will begin counting the signatures during the next three days to see if the basic requirements are met. Then they’ll start verifying signatures in a 30-day period. If there are enough valid signatures, the board will certify the initiative for the November ballot.

What about challenges?

Opponents could try to challenge the signatures. They could allege certain defects — which is why in petition drives the organizers typically try to gather thousands more signatures than are needed to qualify for the ballot, so they can withstand potential challenges.

Angelique Fullwood, spokeswoman for the D.C. Democratic Party, said the party had no comment on whether it would pursue challenges.

How does ranked choice voting work?

Let’s use the Ward 7 campaign as an example. If you were a Ward 7 voter, you would be allowed to rank the 10 candidates in order of preference. But it’s up to you. You could just select one candidate — the only person you want to win. Alternatively, you could rank several of your top picks. Or, if you are really devoted, you could rank all 10.

After the votes are in, counting would proceed in rounds, starting with everyone’s top pick. If one candidate gets 50 percent of the vote after the first round, then it’s over — that person wins. But if not, counting would proceed to a second round, and the candidate who got the least number of votes would be eliminated. If your candidate got eliminated, then your vote would automatically go to your second choice. Vote counters would distribute those second-choice votes to see whether, after this round, a candidate secured 50 percent of the vote. The process continues until a candidate breaches that 50 percent threshold.