October 18, 2024
The Oregon League of Women Voters (OLWV) says the League has conducted three major multi-year studies to reach their position supporting the measure. It highlights how ranked choice voting creates more civil campaigns and opens the door to more candidates of color and women.
Read an excerpt below.
"It reduces political polarization. Ranked choice voting is one of the best ways to get broader vote by all people of our state that it has many advantages. One of which is that it gives people more voice because if your first choice isn't selected you still have a vote. It opens the door to far more candidates of color and women," said Melanie Billings-Yun, representative, OLWV.
OLWV's research showed in 2020, half of all mayors elected through ranked choice were women.
The effort to move the state away from plurality voting is opposed by the Oregon Republican Party and has not been endorsed by the Democratic Party.
With ranked choice, voters rank their top choice as number one and continue numbering their next liked choices in numerical order.
If a candidate gets 50 percent +1 of the vote, that candidate wins.
If not, the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated, and voters who chose that candidate have their second ranked candidate bumped up for scoring.
Read the complete article here.