| Grace Doerfler | KPCW |
Voters will rank candidates in order of preference, an effort to streamline the election process and eliminate the need for a primary election. Heber City tried ranked choice voting for the first time in 2021, and the council voted to continue using the system this year.
Kelleen Potter, executive director of Utah Ranked Choice Voting, said she sees plenty of advantages to the system.
We start finding common ground
“It’s still one person, one vote,” she said. “But it’s sometimes called instant runoff voting, where we see some states where they have an instant runoff if nobody gets 50%. This is essentially the same thing, without having the extra time and cost of having to bring everyone back, where you often see a lower turnout.”
“We start finding common ground,” she added. “It’s sort of training candidates and voters to start looking for solutions and ways that they have things in common instead of this divisive, all-or-nothing, win-or-lose environment that we find ourselves in in this country right now.”
