Representatives and senators (state and federal), and the offices of Governor and President of the United States will use two-rank voting (2RV) for their general and special elections.

Two-rank voting would be implemented in 2028, with the exception of the President of the United States, which would use 2RV starting in 2032.

The primary system will be unaffected. Political parties will continue to nominate one candidate during the primaries using the current methods.

Issues around district magnitude (and district representation) are also unaffected.

This is not a silver bullet for the problems that ail our democracy. “Big money” will continue to play an outsized role in elections and the two major parties will continue to have success to mirror their popularity. What this will do is open the door for different political parties to gain momentum from election cycle to election cycle, which allows them to bridge the gap to becoming a credible alternative to the major parties.

There are several methods of voting that open the door to greater multiparty participation.

We believe that two-rank voting is the best option by way of its simplicity. It is the easiest for voting, the easiest method to understand from start to finish, and the easiest for conducting the election.

See below how it compares to other methods:

Two-rank voting is the simplest form of ranked-choice voting.

With ranked-choice voting (RCV), candidates are ranked in the order of preference. Two-rank voting (2RV) limits the ballot to two ranks; the voter’s first and second choice.

The two-rank voting process is easier to understand.

By limiting the ranks to two, an election held using 2RV mirrors a runoff, which makes it easier to explain and intuitive for voters. The confusing elements of longer forms of RCV, such as recursive mechanics, results determined by ‘who doesn’t receive the fewest votes,’ and ‘transferring’ votes across several rounds, aren’t present in two-rank voting.

The vast majority of ranking decisions have no impact on the outcome of the election. For most people, the first and second choices are more firmly held than, say, the difference between the fifth and sixth choices. It’s faster, easier to fill out, and the ballot is less intimidating.

Conducting the election is easier.

With two-rank voting, the election is limited to two rounds and can be described in a few simple rules. Longer forms of RCV require more complex rules and are more time-consuming to process. Compare our law with the RCV law enacted for New York primaries.

The results are the same.

Two-rank voting’s simplicity is a significant advantage over longer forms of RCV.

With proportional representation, several single-seat districts pool together into a larger, multi-seat district. These multi-seat districts assign members in proportion to votes received by the various parties running candidates. If a party wins 40% of the vote in a 10 member district, they receive four of the ten seats — or 40% of them. A more complete description, and variations, can be found on the Fairvote website.

Proportional representation would not work for the most visible offices being filled, since they are single-seat offices. This includes the U.S. Senators, Oregon Governor, and U.S. President. Additionally, the idea is still foreign for many Oregonians at this time, who are currently only experienced with plurality voting. Further inroads are needed.

That said, the constitutional amendment in this act intentionally refers to “single-seat” representatives so it will not be a barrier to a proportional representation system in the future. Many people support both 2RV for single-seat offices and PR for multi-seat districts.

Open primaries permit any voter to vote for any candidate during the primary elections, regardless of party affiliation.

Open Primaries and Two-Rank Voting operate independently of each other. Open primaries change how candidates are selected in the primaries, while two-rank voting addresses the issue of ‘vote splitting’ so elections are more fair for challengers to the major parties.

Two Round Voting

Two-rank voting reflects the rules of two-round voting. In both systems, the top two candidates have a runoff. In two-rank voting, the runoff happens instantly, while voters go back to the polls in a two-round system.

The greatest advantage of two-rank voting over two-round voting is not having to conduct another election within weeks of the general election. Conducting an election is an enormous and expensive undertaking that requires coordination and effort from voters and elections officials.

Approval Voting

With approval voting, you vote for all of the candidates that you approve of.

Approval voting is susceptible to a tactic known as “bullet voting”. Voters who prefer the major parties may choose to only vote for their candidate, ignoring other candidates. This makes it difficult for the third parties to ever actually catch up to the major parties.

The second concern with approval voting is that people like demonstrating a preference for their favorite candidate. They don’t want to be limited to saying “these three options are equally acceptable for me” with their vote.

Score Voting

With score voting, you rate each candidate on a scale of, say, zero to five.

In most cases, the ideal score voting strategy would be to only give minimum and a maximum scores. If one voter engaged in this tactic and another casts sincere rankings, then the tactical voter would have a greater impact on the outcome of the election. This reduces score to approval voting, inheriting its weaknesses.