Oregon voters will decide whether to use ranked choice voting to elect people to national and statewide offices after the Legislature referred the question to the 2024 ballot Sunday.
Both the state House and Senate gave final approval to House Bill 2004 just hours before the close of the session.
In November 2024, voters will decide whether to use ranked choice voting in races after January 1, 2028 for president, seats in Congress, governor, Oregon secretary of state and some others. The bill would also require the secretary of state’s office and county clerks to educate voters about the new system and allow local governments to opt in.
Ranked choice voting is already used for city council elections in Corvallis and for county commissioners in Benton County. A variation of the method will also be used to elect Portland’s mayor and 12 city council members starting in 2024.
In the system proposed for statewide Oregon elections, voters would mark their ballots for candidates in their order of preference. If necessary, candidates are eliminated to select one that captured more than 50% of votes cast. Advocates say the system will boost participation in elections and cut down on negative campaigning.
In the Senate, the 17 lawmakers who agreed to send the proposal to voters were mostly Democrats, and the 8 who voted no were primarily Republicans. But Lynn Findley, R-Vale, broke with Republicans to approve the bill and Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, voted against it.
Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, said ranked choice voting would allow Oregonians to “feel like their votes actually matter.”
Fred Girod, R-Stayton, said he “couldn’t imagine a worse election bill.”
According to Fair Vote, a Maryland nonprofit that advocates for voting reforms, more than 50 jurisdictions in the U.S. use ranked choice voting including red-state communities in Utah and Wyoming as well as San Francisco.
Portland and Multnomah County voters approved moving elections to ranked choice voting last year.
–Grant Stringer; gstringer@oregonlive.com; @Stringerjourno
