Oregon citizens will soon have the chance to shift their elections to a ranked-choice voting system. On Sunday, Oregon's legislators approved sending H.B. 2004 to the voters in 2024. If the referendum passes, federal and statewide elections will shift to a ranked-choice system. Counties and cities will also be permitted to implement ranked choice for many local elections.
On ranked-choice ballots, voters don't just choose one candidate for office (though they can if they want). Instead, they rank candidates in order of preference. To win a ranked-vote election, a candidate must receive more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate wins a majority in the first tally, the votes are tallied again, but the candidate with the fewest votes is excluded. For voters whose first choice was the ejected candidate, their second choice becomes their vote in the second tally. This process continues until one candidate gets a majority of the vote.
