The council voted unanimously April 15 to return to conventional voting for the 2025 municipal elections, when the mayor and two city council seats will be on the ballot.
The decision followed weeks of often-heated public discussion about which system better serves Heber voters.
The issue prompted a deluge of public feedback. Mayor Heidi Franco said the city got over 300 comments about ranked choice voting, with more than 75% opposed. KPCW obtained and reviewed roughly 80 of those emails and found similar opinions.
In the lead-up to the council’s vote, Franco also published two blog posts advocating against ranked choice voting.
Those posts were fact-checked by Utah Ranked Choice Voting Executive Director Kelleen Potter in an email sent to Heber leaders and staff hours before the council vote.
In her email, which was shared with KPCW, Potter described the mayor’s recent blog posts as “misleading at best” and accused Franco of “[trying] to undermine this system of voting as well as her colleagues who support it.”
In particular, Potter – who previously served as Heber’s mayor – called out Franco’s comments that “over half of the voters’ ballots were not counted” in the 2023 city election.
“It’s just simply not true that their ballots were not counted,” she told KPCW in an interview Monday, April 21. “Every ballot that had a vote on there that was discernible, was counted.”
She said it’s not true that ballots are thrown out if they don’t rank every candidate available – voters can rank as many or as few choices as they want.
Franco declined to comment on Potter’s fact-checking email. She told KPCW Tuesday, “The people have spoken and that’s what is important.”
Misconceptions about uncounted ballots showed up in many of the dozens of emails sent to the Heber City Council ahead of their decision.
One Heber resident, Ken McConnell, wrote, “I had to vote for someone I DIDN’T [sic] want or my ballot would not be counted.” He said he believed people who only voted for a few of the 11 candidates in the 2023 City Council race had their ballots discarded without their knowledge.
Potter said misinformation about uncounted ballots created unnecessary “fear and frustration and anger.” She said it’s upsetting to see growing election distrust in Heber.
“People who don’t really understand how ranked choice voting works now believe that perhaps their ballot didn’t count – and they feel like somehow people at the city are manipulating the process to hurt them and to not have their voice be heard,” she said. “It’s simply not true, and it creates an atmosphere where there’s a lack of trust in the people and the process, and it has no basis in reality.”
Potter also pushed back against Franco’s claim that ranked choice elections can’t be audited, stating local elections officials can and do audit ranked races.
Concern about voting equipment also showed up in the public comments. Voter Gaylyn Latimer said she didn’t trust a system that “depends on a machine to ‘tabulate’ each round which cannot be audited.”
And Nancy Hart said she talked to other Heber residents who “felt that the computers can be adjusted to favor some candidates more than others.”
Officials conduct public tests to ensure the voting machines’ integrity and help residents understand the ballot counting process. It’s called a logic and accuracy test, and it’s required by law. Machines are used to tally the ballots in every election, whether ranked choice or traditional.
Potter said she thought the city council voted the only way it could.
“They certainly don’t want people feeling like they’re not being listened to; they want people to trust the election,” she said. “But I think it was unfortunate that the mayor would send something out to create that kind of misinformation and mistrust of her colleagues.”
Some councilmembers hinted during the discussion April 15 they thought ranked choice voting worked well, but they were voting in line with the public comments they received.
Councilmember Scott Phillips, for example, said he was supporting traditional voting “not because I think it’s better, but because I think the fighting needs to stop.”
Phillips previously called Franco out for spreading false information at multiple city council meetings this spring.
“Are you comfortable with over 55% of the people trying to vote saying, ‘I’m not voting anymore’?” Franco said on March 4 during a discussion of ranked choice voting. “If you’re comfortable with over half of them — that’s fine, just say you are.”
“Mayor, you’re twisting this,” Phillips said. “You’re lying to the public.”
“No, it’s the numbers. I’m not lying — you’re slandering me,” she said.
A few minutes later, the argument flared up again.
“I can’t listen to any more lies,” Phillips said. “It just drives me crazy.”
“Oh, it’s interesting, your choice of language,” Franco said. “I wonder if this is the kind of leadership that Heber City wants, when you accuse like this in a public meeting.”
Two weeks later, on March 18, they picked up the disagreement where they left off.
“If you vote for the losing candidate, your vote still counts,” Phillips said.
“I think there’s debate on that,” Franco replied.
Among the public comments, the city also received one legal threat from a group of 10 residents. They wrote, “Should you vote to adopt, expand, or continue the implementation of ranked choice voting in Heber City’s municipal elections, we intend to pursue legal action to challenge such a decision as unconstitutional.” They argued that ranked choice voting is “coercive.”
Some locals said they prefer the system.
Marianne Meek said she likes the system because it saves time and money.
And JoyLynn Jeppson said she likes ranked choice voting because she thinks it “more accurately reflects the voice of citizens.” And she said it makes campaigns more civil and more open to third-party candidates.
But after two elections with the system, Heber’s door to ranked choice voting is closed – at least for the foreseeable future. This winter, the Utah legislature declined to extend the ranked choice voting pilot program, and it will expire in January 2026.
