I think that this stacked bar chart design is the best top-line visualization for ranked choice votes, actually:
It needs 4 colors:
- First-round vote count for candidates that survived to final round (here, blue)
- Transferred vote count for all rounds except final round (here, a very pale color)
- Transferred vote count in final round (here, orange)
- Vote count at elimination for candidates eliminated before final round (here, a solid grey)
From How to display RCV election results - FairVote with some color edits.
