Christopher Collard of the Utah Foundation shares the findings of a new report titled, "A Tale of Two Ballots: Comparing Ranked-Choice and Simple-Plurality Voting in Utah" and its use in a Utah pilot program. Collard says ranked choice voting is hard to use under current law and the state's municipal pilot program ended this year. He says the Utah Foundation examined the issue as a means of improving public understanding of how the voting method works, not as an argument for or against it. His says says ranked choice voting provides government with more detailed information about voter preferences, but makes voting, ballot processing and tabulation more complex. It's also an opportunity to combine primary and general elections, which give voters more time to evaluate candidates. But he notes the research is mixed on whether ranked choice voting increases turnout, competitiveness or the civility of campaigns.
Utah Foundation report examines ranked choice voting as pilot ends
