OR Voters Reject Rank Choice Voting Proposal Statewide

Rank Choice voting is a fairly new idea, instead of picking one of two (or more in a primary) candidates on the ballot, voters are asked to rank the candidates in their order of preference...for example, 7 contenders, 1 through 7.

Rank choice is used in the City of Portland, but was confusing, say experts

According to information from Axios Portland, a large number of rank-choice voting ballots in City election positions were left blank, voters only chose their preferred candidate.

And statewide, Oregon voters unanimously rejected, by a 58 percent no margin, the idea of rank choice voting statewide.

Axios reports citywide, 20 percent of voters left the 'bubbles' blank on their ballots:

"Districts 2 and 4 — comprising Northeast and West Portland, respectively — saw 18% of voters opt out of a City Council vote.
District 3, with much of inner Southeast and parts of Northeast, had an opt-out rate of 17%.
The highest rate of voter avoidance — 29% — was in District 1, which is also the city's poorest and most diverse district, which has rarely seen any representation in City Hall."

According to Axios, by way of Ellen Seljan, a political science professor at Lewis and Clark College in Portland:

"My overall conclusion is that the voters were overwhelmed, found the system and number of candidates too hard, and didn't feel confident in their vote choice."

Rank choice voting has people rank their candidates in order of their preference, all the candidates who filed are on the ballot. Traditional ballots have just the two candidates who survived the primaries. While supporters claim it allows more choices, many experts say it's a disaster in the making.