Rankled Choice Voters
Thump! Thump! Thump! That was the sound heard near election offices around the state as voters soundly whacked a measure put forward by legislative Democrats to bring Ranked Choice Voting to federal and statewide offices. With counting nearly complete, Measure 117 is flaming out by well over 300,000 votes.
The margin of defeat is in itself remarkable, considering RCV proponents — fueled primarily by out-of-state donors who love using Oregon as their test lab — spent more than $9 million to convince voters to say yes. How much did opponents spend against the measure? $200. Yup, just 200 buckaroos. Now that’s what you call ROI.
Measure 117 was said to improve voter participation, encourage candidates from marginalized communities, and give all voters a bigger role in deciding who represents them. In short, advocates argued it was the best way to kick-start democracy.
She said it was the best in the land.
And I said: No! No! No!”
— Ringo Starr
“The No No Song” (1974)
Confusion led to disillusion, and ultimately to dissolution, of Measure 117. RCV is essentially a Voter-Donor program. Candidates are ranked in order of preference. If your top choice trails the pack after the first round of counting, then they are eliminated and their votes are harvested and implanted in the remaining candidates until one survivor remains and is declared the winner.
News media worked hard to explain on-air how the system would work. Try as they did, many voters were left more perplexed by the explanations. Pat Dorris at KGW-TV dedicated nearly an entire show explaining the intricate mechanics of RCV. But, as he noted, “Unless you’re a rocket scientist, the actual tabulation of that ranked choice vote is pretty darn confusing.”
That confusion ultimately doomed Measure 117. As one voter told me, “I just want to vote; I don’t want to have to pass a math test.”
Portland used RCV for the first time in electing a new mayor and city council. Keith Wilson, a political outsider, claimed the mayoral crown after scoring a 19-round TKO over runner-up Carmen Rubio. Advocates for RCV can point to this result as proof that the system allows for political outsiders like Wilson to have a chance of succeeding against entrenched political interests.
Measure 117 got off to a rocky start. It was a legislative referral with every legislative Democrat voting in favor and every Republican voting no. Legislators also exempted their own political races from the RCV requirement, fueling the goose and gander discussion.
Voters may have also determined that the RCV they were being asked to affirm was significantly different than the one in Alaska, Maine, or even the City of Portland. Maine allows independent voters to vote in RCV primaries, and in Alaska and Portland, elections for all candidates — regardless of political party affiliation — all run on the same ballot. It’s an All-Comers Meet, and voters can rank all the office seekers.
Measure 117, on the other hand, retained the state closed partisan primary system. Had it passed, Democrat voters could only rank Democrats, and Republicans could only rank Republicans. Then, in the general election, the two would square off just as it is done today.
For RCV to fulfill its promises of inclusion, it has to be applied in an open primary or non-partisan election. If those wealthy out-of-state interests want to truly change Oregon’s system, they should consider funding a ballot measure asking Oregonians if they want to open primary elections to all voters where everyone’s voice is heard in selecting general election finalists. Voters might warm up to that one and RCV could later have a chance for an encore appearance.
But for now, its R.I.P. for RCV.
