On Thursday the Park City Council adopted a resolution to officially move to ranked choice voting for the 2025 election.
Ranked choice voting is an alternative voting method that eliminates primary elections and lets voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots.
Council member Tana Toly, the only incumbent that has announced a reelection bid, previously said eliminating the primary election would reduce costs for potential candidates and make campaigning easier.
Council member Ed Parigian was the only council member to vote against the ranked choice voting (councilmember Jeremy Rubell was excused from Thursday’s meeting).
“I don’t buy the argument that it would be easier to campaign, because I don’t think it should be easy to campaign,” Parigian said. “I think this job’s important enough that you should take it seriously and put in the full effort and strive to win. That’s the way it’s always been.”
This year Parkites will vote for mayor and two city council seats.
It’s unclear if Utah lawmakers will allow cities to use ranked choice voting beyond 2025.
In 2018 legislators passed a bill allowing cities to pilot ranked choice voting through January 2026. A bill to extend the pilot program was not adopted during the legislative session that ended earlier this month.
Park City officials believe there’s a chance state lawmakers will make an amendment to allow cities to continue to use ranked choice voting in the future.
Leaders in nearby Heber City, which has used ranked choice for the last several years, have yet to make a decision about whether to use the voting method for their election this year.
Park City Municipal is a financial supporter of KPCW.
