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As WW has previously reported, the city of Portland’s Charter Commission wants city voters to consider switching the current method of electing candidates to ranked-choice voting.
That process calls on voters to rank candidates for office. Votes are then tallied, and the candidate with the fewest top-choice votes is eliminated. Voters who picked the eliminated candidate as their first choice then have their votes go to their second-choice candidate. Votes are tallied again, and the lowest-ranking candidate eliminated until one candidate gets a majority.
Portland isn’t the only local government weighing this idea.
On June 15, the Multnomah County Charter Review Committee listened to a recommendation by its equitable representation subcommittee that the county adopt ranked-choice voting for all elections.
The charter review committee then has until Aug. 4 to decide whether to ask the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners to put that question before voters on the November ballot.
One way in which Multnomah County won’t be a mirror of Portland’s proposed changes in November: the equity committee declined to recommend increasing the number of commissioners from 5 to 12. The group said multi-member districts needed more study.
