Oregon Effort to Give IRV option to cities and counties

Some prominent candidates and elected officials are campaigning to provide Oregon cities and counties with the option to elect their public officials using IRV. We commend these officials for their efforts.

In the state of Washington, Senate Bill 6000 in the last session was voted out of committee, but did not make it through the Rules Committee. Several legislators expressed a desire to see what happens in Pierce County in November before giving cities the authority to use Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) or Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) to elect their public officials.

Candidates have now filed to run for office in Pierce County and the voters will be treated to more choice in November. There will be partisan and non-partisan RCV elections on the ballot and some of the races promise to be quite competitive.

State legislators in Washington will be called upon to consider a local option in the 2009 session as well.