In an election which uses preference ballots, there exist many different voting methods for choosing a winner of the election given the voters' preference data. We analyse the extent to which the choice of voting method matters in American ranked-choice elections. To this end, we compiled a database of over 200 American elections which used preference ballots and, for each election, calculated the winner under the methods of plurality, instant runoff voting, plurality runoff, Condorcet, Bucklin voting, and two versions of Borda count. We find that the choice of voting method matters less frequently than what is suggested by much of the theoretical literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]