In ranked choice voting, voters rank their preferences rather than choosing one representative. July 17, 2022 (KOIN).
Portland, Oregon (coin) — The Multnomah County Elections Department Ranking selection voting.
The new system will be in place for Portland’s city elections this November and for countywide elections in 2026. Multnomah County released an update on the progress of the transition on Tuesday.
The Multnomah County Board of Elections said it is in the process of testing and implementing voting software and plans to hold a large-scale testing event next week.
Portland’s local election will be the first to use ranked-choice voting, but the Multnomah County Board of Elections will be responsible for distributing and counting the ballots. Ranked-choice voting has already been implemented in Alaska, Maine and about 50 other municipalities across the country, but this will be the first time it has been implemented in Oregon.
There is also a massive voter education campaign underway to familiarize people with the new ballot design and how to vote, in which instead of choosing just one candidate, people rank candidates in order of preference, and if their top candidate drops out, their vote will be counted towards another candidate. Multnomah County Elections Department website.
Multnomah County Election Commission officials said voters’ biggest concern right now is how to properly mark their ballots and avoid mistakes that could affect how their votes are counted.
County and city of Portland officials are working to educate the community about the ranking options ahead of implementation, including an awareness event at last weekend’s Portland Pride Waterfront Festival. The city of Portland Comic books to help you understand the transition To A new form of city governmentIt also includes information about ranked-choice voting.
Tune in this Sunday, July 28th at 6pm on KOIN 6 and 4:30pm on the CW in Portland and KOIN.com for a special episode, “Eye on Northwest Politics,” that will delve deeper into this topic and feature Multnomah County Election Commissioner Tim Scott.
