Both the House and Senate gave final approval to House Bill 2004
After the Legislature referred the question to the 2024 ballot, Oregon voters will have the opportunity to determine the implementation of ranked choice voting for electing individuals to national and statewide offices.
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 electoral system allows voters to rank candidates by preference, meaning they can submit ballots that list not only their first-choice candidate for a position, but also their second, third and so on, as explained in Time Magazine.
The candidate with the majority (more than 50%) of first-choice votes wins outright. If no candidate gets a majority of first-choice votes, then it triggers a new counting process. The candidate who did the worst is eliminated, and that candidate’s voters’ ballots are redistributed to their second-choice pick. In other words, if you ranked a losing candidate as your first choice, and the candidate is eliminated, then your vote still counts: it just moves to your second-choice candidate. That process continues until there is a candidate who has the majority of votes.
Here in Oregon, ranked choice voting is already implemented in Corvallis and for county commissioners in Benton County. A version of this method will also be used to elect Portland’s mayor and 12 city council members starting in 2024.
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.
Source: Oregon Live