Organizers have two years to get more than 6,500 signatures, but have a deadline of Aug. 5 if they want to get the measure before voters in November.
Beth Hoover voted ‘no’ on a statewide ballot measure to implement single-winner ranked-choice voting in Oregon two years ago because she thought it was too confusing for voters.
Nevertheless, the 78-year-old Bend resident attended an educational event hosted by the League of Women Voters of Deschutes County earlier this week about a proposed ballot measure to implement multiple-winner ranked-choice voting – an even more complex version – for a local contest.
The measure that organizers want to put before voters in November would allow a variant of ranked-choice voting that applies the same principles of single-winner ranked-choice voting to races with multiple winners – in this case, the Deschutes County Commission.
“I’m not sure I’m in favor or opposed at this point,” Hoover said, as she waited for the event to begin. She said she didn’t know much about the alternative electoral system and was concerned about certain provisions of the initiative.
Proponents still have work to do before the potential ballot initiative becomes a reality.
Organizers need to gather over 6,500 signatures in two years, but if they want the initiative on the November ballot, they must gather those names by August 5. The petition has just under 500 signatures so far, and its backers will keep trying if they don’t gather the required number in time for this election cycle, said Brian Smith, co-director of the Tribal Democracy Project and registered agent for the petition.
If it comes to fruition and passes, the measure would bring a raft of changes to how Deschutes County voters choose county commissioners. The change would be another significant reform for the county after residents voted to make the board non-partisan in 2022 and expanded it from three to five members in 2024.
The City of Portland adopted multi-winner ranked-choice voting for city council in 2024, and the electoral system is used in local governments in states like Colorado, New Mexico and Maine and countries such as Ireland and Australia, according to FairVote, a non-partisan organization promoting election reforms like ranked-choice voting.
The initiative’s chief petitioners are Amanda Page, Freddy Finney-Jordet and Tawney Howlett, and it’s supported by the Tribal Democracy Project, Deschutes Defend Our Democracy Coalition, Common Cause and More Equitable Democracy Action.
A 2024 statewide effort to bring single-winner ranked-choice voting to state and federal primary and general elections failed.
Proponents of ranked-choice voting say the system results in winners with broader support and encourages political moderation by allowing voters to use their rankings to express more nuance. Ranked-choice voting also encourages the election of women and minority candidates, advocates say.
“We give (our elected officials) a certain amount of power when we vote them in, so we want to make sure that we’re getting the people that really will speak for us,” said Joyce Durban, acting president of the local League chapter.
In a single-winner ranked-choice contest, if a candidate gets more than 50% of first-place votes, they win. If that doesn’t happen, the candidate with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated, and those ballots go to each voter’s second choice. This continues until someone earns more than 50% of the vote.
But the proposed ballot measure in Deschutes County is more complicated.
It’s a multi-winner ranked-choice vote because there are multiple commission seats up for grabs instead of just one winner, like a race for governor or mayor.
In this scenario, Deschutes County Commission candidates would need to reach a threshold of 16.7% of the votes to win a seat. Hoover expressed concern that ranked-choice voting could lead to a glut of candidates. During the May primary, 15 candidates ran for four Deschutes County Board of Commissioners seats.
A percentage of excess votes from the top vote-getter to reach that 16.7% threshold would be redistributed to a voter’s second pick. Candidates who gain the fewest votes would also be eliminated, and people who voted for an eliminated candidate will see their vote transferred to their next choice candidate.
This continues in rounds until five candidates have reached the threshold to win a seat.
“People are afraid of it because there is such complicated math, but there’s no need to be afraid. It really does work quite well,” said Melody Valdini, a Portland State University political scientist who has studied the system.
In a winner-take-all voting scenario, 50% of voters elect the winner, but in proportional ranked choice voting where five seats are in play, 83% of voters elect winners, according to ranked choice voting expert Rob Richie’s presentation at the League’s educational event Monday evening.
During the talk, attendees’ eyes were fixed on the presentation, but when Richie got into explaining how a portion of votes transfers from one candidate to another, one woman quietly said, “I’m lost.”
Asking people to trust the math is a big leap of faith, Valdini said, “so I get that people are uncomfortable with it.”
Under the proposed initiative, the commission would be elected every four years in sync with the presidential election cycle.
After the event, Hoover said she still had questions and hadn’t made up her mind – if the ballot measure does get to voters in November.
“I’m somebody who votes consistently, and I really do research issues,” she said. “So this will be one I’m going to be researching.”
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.