Ranked ballots means no “spoiler” candidates and no “wasted” votes. Every vote counts!

For too long Oregon voters have been forced to vote strategically for the lesser of two evils instead of voting for who we truly believe to be the best candidate.

Oregon's use of mail-in ballots makes it easy to adopt ranked ballots on which voters can mark more than just a first choice.

Computers make it easy to count that additional preference information and identify which candidate really deserves to win.

Ranked ballots in Oregon elections are long overdue!

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This Oregon version of ranked choice voting includes a refinement over the basic version of ranked choice voting that Maine recently adopted, and which the town of Burlington, Vermont adopted and then rejected after it yielded an obviously unfair result. That unfair result happened in Burlington's 2009 election for mayor. This Ranked Choice Oregon version would have prevented that failure.

Our current use of primitive ballots and simplistic “plurality” counting is exploited by wealthy business owners who give the most campaign dollars. Most of that money comes from outside of Oregon. The result has been an excessive emphasis on protecting tax breaks for businesses that don't need them, giving special monopolies in what should be free markets, blocking innovations that compete with undeservedly protected businesses, and other “special-interest” arrangements that place an extra financial burden on Oregonians. Years of unfair elections have undermined the Oregon economy, and placed too little emphasis on reforms, ideas, and platforms that would best serve Oregon voters — who are also essential workers, consumers, tax-paying employees, and investors (even if “only” in 401k plans).

Oregon has a long history of pioneering major reforms that other states later copy, such as the bottle deposit (50 years ago!), public access to beaches, protecting Oregon's beautiful natural areas, and mail-in voting. It's time for Oregon to do it again by putting elections back into the hands of voters, and reducing the excessive influence of the money, especially out-of-state money, that flows to Oregon candidates.

Let's make Portland's 2024 election a success, as described here.