Advocacy groups have launched a campaign to change the way county commissioners are elected in Deschutes County by introducing a new voting system they say would increase representation and give a better chance to candidates not backed by either of the major political parties.
A coalition supporting the change announced the campaign on Monday, kicking off an effort to gather the 6,500 signatures needed to get an initiative on a ballot in front of Deschutes County voters. If passed, the measure would introduce proportional ranked-choice voting, doing away with primary elections and races for individual county commissioner seats.
Petitioners need the signatures by Aug. 5 to have the measure on the ballot this November, although they have up to two years to gather signatures, said Brian Smith, director of the Tribal Democracy Project. The group aids Native candidates, encourages voter turnout and is backing the Deschutes County ranked-choice effort. The chief petitioners for the potential ballot measure are activist Freddy Finney-Jordet, Redmond School Board member and recent Deschutes County Commission candidate Amanda Page and her campaign manager, Tawney Barin Howlett. Common Cause Oregon, a good government group, is also supporting the initiative, called “Voices for All of Deschutes.”
The effort adds to what’s already been a whirlwind year in Deschutes County politics, with four seats on the county commission up for reelection and another proposal to split the County into five geographic voting districts on the ballot in November. Two races were already decided in the May primary with victories from candidates backed by the local Democratic party, which secured a majority on the County’s governing board for the first time in decades. The two other races will be decided in November.
Part of the motivation for the ranked-choice voting initiative is the possibility that candidates supported by the Deschutes Democrats — or any party — could fill all five seats on the board, leaving more progressive, conservative and rural voters without a voice. Proponents say it’s a better option to increase representation than the proposed district map, which they say was crafted to ensure Republicans hold on to power despite having the fewest number of registered voters in the county.
“We live in a politically and geographically diverse county,” Page wrote in an email newsletter to supporters on June 12. Page is a progressive Democrat who lost in the May primary election after the Deschutes Democrats endorsed a different candidate, Amy Sabbadini. “During the districting process, I repeatedly heard people express a fear of lack of representation. That concern is proving to be valid. But I believe it is best addressed by proportional ranked-choice voting.”
Under that model, county commission candidates would compete for all five seats on the board at once during a November general election. Voters would rank candidates by order of preference, rather than casting a single vote in each individual race. Then, the votes of the people who preferred the least-popular candidate are transferred to their second-choice candidate until only five remain.
Smith said that because of its structure, the proportional ranked-choice voting proposal cannot coexist with the proposed district map, which would require county commissioners to live within a sub-jurisdiction of voters who elected them.
Finney-Jordet, one of the ranked-choice voting petitioners, is also leading the Deschutes Defend Our Democracy Coalition, the campaign against the map.
“We’re still fighting this gerrymander,” Smith said of the map.
Despite the promise of more conservative and rural representation, the Deschutes Republicans party doesn’t support ranked-choice voting, chair Keith Rockow told the Source.
“It is just one more way for Democrats to push us out of the election,” Rockow said.
The proposed district map, he said, will ensure better geographical representation.
“I don’t have to pick and choose which commissioner has to deal with my issue because I will have a representative specific to me,” Rockow said.
Portland debuted ranked-choice voting in city council elections in 2024, and Multnomah County will use the system for the first time later this year.
In Deschutes County, voters have approved two changes to county commission election structure in recent years. A 2022 ballot measure nixed separate party elections for Republicans and Democrats. Unaffiliated voters — the County’s largest bloc — now participate in primary elections, and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, move on to the general election, while anyone with more than 50% wins automatically.
In 2024, voters passed a ballot measure to expand the commission from three seats to five.
Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang supported both those changes, and has opposed the district map, along with other Democrats. He didn’t take a strong position on the ranked-choice voting proposal.
“Proportional ranked-choice voting is interesting and provides some potential benefits, but I also think it’s very challenging to explain to voters and would present some significant administrative challenges for us if it was only applied to county commissioner elections,” Chang told the Source.
Smith, of the Tribal Democracy Project, said supporters want to expand ranked-choice voting beyond the county commission, which is just a starting point.
Officials who run elections in counties across the state — including Deschutes — expressed concerns with a statewide ranked-choice voting effort in 2024, citing the extra cost, workload and potential election mistrust.
“To implement ranked-choice voting at any level does increase cost,” Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison told the Source, citing software upgrades and printing.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
