Oregon’s Measure 117
November 5, 2024
By: Gavin Horoszewski
On November 5, 2024—Election Day—Oregonians will be voting on Measure 117, which, if passed, will permit voters to rank candidates in statewide and federal elections—both general and primary—on or after January 1, 2028. Those state and federal offices will include the President and Vice President of the United States, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, the Governor of Oregon, and the Secretary of State of Oregon, among others. Presently, like most states, the State of Oregon uses a plurality voting system, in which each voter casts their ballot for a single candidate, and the candidate with the most votes wins (a majority is not necessary for victory). A similar ranked-choice voting (RCV) system has already been adopted in Oregon’s Benton County, Multnomah County, and the city of Portland.
The RCV system that Measure 117 would implement in a little more than three years would work as follows: If one candidate receives a majority of all first-choice votes, that candidate wins the election; but if no one candidate emerges with a simple majority in that first round, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and those ballots cast for the eliminated candidate are reallocated to their second-choice candidates; this process is repeated until one candidate emerges with a majority of votes, thus winning the election. In effect, this sort of RCV is an instant run-off between those candidates not eliminated after a given round of ballot counting.
Measure 117 would permit, though not require, voters to rank multiple candidates on their ballots, such that those who do not wish to rank the candidates will be able to simply vote for just their first-choice candidate if they so choose, though they would do so at risk of their ballot not being reallocated to their second-choice candidate if their first choice is eliminated.
Proponents of Measure 117 argue that it would be an improvement on the current plurality system. The current system, they claim, discourages voters from casting their ballots for third-party candidates for fear of hurting their preferred major-party candidate and helping the major-party candidate they dislike more. Under RCV, voters could vote for a third-party candidate as their first choice, then list their preferred major-party candidate as their second choice; once the preferred third-party candidate is eliminated, their supporters’ votes won’t be effectively thrown away. The general end result, supporters argue, will be the ascent of more widely agreeable candidates than under the plurality system.
For example, suppose that A receives 40 first-choice votes, B receives 15, C receives 25, and D receives 20; if 11 of B’s supporters ranked D second (bringing D to 31 on Round 2), and 20 of C’s supporters ranked D above A (bringing D to 51 on Round 3), then D, who is be more generally agreeable than A, wins the election.
But not all Oregonians support RCV. Opponents of Measure 117 suggest that the ballot initiative may not be all sunshine and roses. By eliminating the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes, Equal Vote Coalition founder Mark Frohnmayer suggests, there’s a risk of eliminating a universal second choice in favor of someone less generally agreeable.
For a less extreme example than a candidate being every voter’s second choice, suppose that A receives 40 first-choice votes, B receives 10, C receives 30, and D receives 20; it would not matter if the second choice of 60 of the 90 people who ranked A, C, or D first was B, because B would be eliminated immediately; despite being in 70% of the electorate’s top two, B would be unable to win.
Yet, imperfect as Measure 117 might be, supporters see it, and the opportunities it may create, as better than the status quo. Whichever side prevails nationally on Election Day, this Oregon ballot initiative will be an outcome to watch for.