September 20, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT: Martina Pansze, Sightline Institute, martina@sightline.org
FULL ARTICLE: What Oregonians Need to Know About Ranked Choice Voting
PORTLAND, OR – A measure on Oregon’s ballot this November, if approved, would switch voting in statewide and federal elections from the current “pick-one” election system to rank choice voting. If adopted, the referendumm—Measure 117—would also give cities, school districts, and other local entities in Oregon guidelines to adopt ranked choice voting in their elections.
The nonpartisan, regional think tank Sightline Institute offers an explainer on what a switch to ranked choice voting would look like for Oregon voters. Research shows:
- Winners earn majority support—not just plurality support. Of the seven gubernatorial elections since 2000, four saw the winning candidate finish with less than 50 percent of the vote. Christine Drazan won the 2022 Republican primary for governor with just 23 percent of the vote.
- Ranked choice voting helps avoid “spoiler candidates” from splitting the vote, as happened in Oregon’s 1990 election for Governor. Independent Al Mobley sheared off 13 percent of the vote, likely from voters who otherwise would have supported Republican Dave Frohnmayer, leading to the election of Democrat Barbara Roberts with the support of only 46 percent of voters.
- Maine offers Oregonians the closest example of what statewide adoption of ranked choice voting might look like in practice. Even when it has not obviously changed an election’s winner, ranked choice voting has had subtle benefits in Maine, such as encouraging candidates to ally with each other and to reach out to each other’s supporters.
Oregon cities Portland and Corvallis have already adopted ranked choice voting for local elections, as have Multnomah and Benton counties.
“Voters tend to like the option to rank candidates on their ballots,” says Jay Lee, a Sightline statistical and elections researcher who authored the article. “They can choose their honest favorite without fear of taking votes away from a candidate who is considered more strategically electable. Using ranked choice voting, they’re free to vote for who they think should win—not just who they think can win.”
Read the analysis:
- What Oregonians Need to Know About Ranked Choice Voting | Mitigating spoiler candidates and other upsides for Beaver State elections.
- Maine’s Lessons in Ranked Choice Voting | The state’s groundbreaking statewide use of ranked choice voting is a positive model.
- Spoiler alert! Majority winners are no guarantee | Oregon’s past statewide and federal elections are full of spoiler candidates and non-majority winners.
Related articles:
- Five ways ranked choice voting could help climate action | A functioning democracy is essential to tackling any large-scale issue.
- Reporting on ranked choice voting in Portland’s 2024 elections | Resources for journalists and editors.
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Jay Lee is a senior research associate with Sightline Institute’s Democracy program, with a quantitative background in statistics and elections research. Find his latest research here.
Sightline Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank providing leading original analysis of democracy, forests, energy, and housing policy in the Pacific Northwest, Alaska, British Columbia, and beyond.
