July 18, 2023
MEDIA CONTACTS: Alan Durning, Executive Director, alan@sightline.org; Jay Lee, Senior Research Associate (Portland), jay@sightline.org
FULL LETTER: Sightline’s Concerns about Proposed Revisions to Charter Amendments (PDF download)
PORTLAND, OR – Leadership of Sightline Institute, the Pacific Northwest’s leading think tank, have submitted a letter to the Portland City Council and Mayor Wheeler strongly opposing proposed revisions to the voter-supported Charter amendments passed in 2022 as ballot measure 26-228. They submitted the letter in advance of a work session Council scheduled on the revisions this morning (9:30 a.m., Tuesday, July 18).
“The November charter amendment vote that adopted proportional ranked choice voting… launched Portland to the forefront of democracy in America,” wrote Alan Durning and Jay Lee, executive director and senior research associate, respectively, at Sightline Institute. “[B]oth the multi-winner RCV method of voting and the number of seats per district (three) are integral features of Portland’s new system. Changing either of them as proposed would undermine the reform’s purposes: to enhance representation, encourage compromise and consensus-seeking, and make Portland work again.”
Read Sightline’s full letter to Council (PDF download).
Related: Fairer Elections in Portland, a compendium of Sightline’s research on Charter amendments
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Alan Durning is founder and executive director of Sightline Institute.
Jay Lee is a Portland-based senior research associate with Sightline Institute.
Sightline Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank providing leading original analysis of housing, democracy, forests, and energy policy in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, British Columbia, and beyond.
