I’m a firm believer that our current method locks us into a two party system. It sounds like there may be some lessons learned we could take away here. I think Alaska also tried RCV?
Yup, Alaska has it and maintains it after this election. It was put up to a vote and passed.
Interesting thing about the Portland vote, they found the ranked choice voting wouldn’t have made a difference compared to first past the post. The results would have been the same either way.
“What we saw in Portland’s recent elections, both for mayor and for City Council, is that any voting method likely would have elected the same set of people."
That being said, this election in Portland was an oddball for a variety of reasons:
We threw out our entire system of city government and started over.
We added ranked choice balloting.
City Council members were elected 3 at a time in 4 districts (total of 12) via rank 6 voting.
Could it be that the candidates that didn’t make it just needed better messaging? I would hypothesize over time that we may start seeing more drift away from the two familiar parties, but only when the voters are engaged and informed of their choices?
I’m a firm believer that our current method locks us into a two party system. It sounds like there may be some lessons learned we could take away here. I think Alaska also tried RCV?
Yup, Alaska has it and maintains it after this election. It was put up to a vote and passed.
Interesting thing about the Portland vote, they found the ranked choice voting wouldn’t have made a difference compared to first past the post. The results would have been the same either way.
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2024/11/portlands-1st-ranked-choice-election-reshaped-races-but-vote-reallocation-made-little-difference.html
“What we saw in Portland’s recent elections, both for mayor and for City Council, is that any voting method likely would have elected the same set of people."
That being said, this election in Portland was an oddball for a variety of reasons:
We threw out our entire system of city government and started over.
We added ranked choice balloting.
City Council members were elected 3 at a time in 4 districts (total of 12) via rank 6 voting.
Mayor was also a result of rank 6.
Could it be that the candidates that didn’t make it just needed better messaging? I would hypothesize over time that we may start seeing more drift away from the two familiar parties, but only when the voters are engaged and informed of their choices?
Oh, no, 1/5 voters in my district skipped that section entirely and didn’t vote for anyone(!) In an election where the top 3 would win!