Ellen on Election 2023

Ellen on Election 2023

For me, a fair, just, equitable and accessible election process is paramount within a democratic representative government. 

On February 7th, the Cottonwood Heights City Council deliberated on “2023 Election” — whether Cottonwood Heights would continue within the Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) Pilot Program or drop out and return to the “primary/general” system.

Though three council members, including me, had asked that there be a consensus made at this meeting in order to inform Cottonwood Heights residents of whether our city would be continuing within the Ranked Choice Voting pilot program or whether we would switch back to the primary with general election voting method, the mayor chose to postpone decision-making. He based that announcement on the possibility that the Utah State Legislature might ban RCV AND his concern over the cost of RCV versus primary/general election.

Council Member Newell remarked how Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) fosters easier access for citizens who desire to run for public office without the higher time and cost commitment of primary and general associated with conventional voting methods. 

Council Member Bracken shared data that RCV was received positively by the majority of voters in 2021 and other supportive evidence.

I added my remarks supporting CH’s continuance in the RCV pilot program that was designed to run through 2025. The pilot program is to gather data on Ranked Choice Voting. Let the data be collected by conducting the pilot as planned. 

A post election survey conducted by Y2Analytics (the same company that conducts statistically relevant surveys for Cottonwood Hts) showed that 86% of RCV participants were satisfied with their voting experience.  81% indicated they "found filling out a RCV ballot easy to use". 90% indicated the instruction for how to fill out their ballot were clear. 88% indicated they were "confident that their ballot would be counted accurately."

RCV cultivates a campaign atmosphere in which candidates are incentivized to interact with all registered voters and seems to lessen the polarizing and extremist atmosphere which has tainted the election process within our representative government in recent years.

As a candidate I found the RCV process within municipal elections a more affordable experience of both my own time and money because I did not have to run within a primary and then again within a general election. As a voter, I appreciated being able to rank the candidates for whom I had gained insights, but knew I did not have to vote for or rank candidates (for any position) for whom I had no familiarity or opinion.

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COSTS, if you're interested. OR SKIP THIS PART:   With SLCO looking to post a flat $15,709 fee plus a sliding scale of “allocated costs” depending on how many cities within SLCO participate, I understand this to be a cost as high as $46,376 if only Cottonwood Heights and SLC proper participate, as low as $27,761 if there are at least three SLCO cities that participate, or even lower if there are more than three cities.

Cottonwood Heights’ 2017 election including mayoral race utilizing primary & general process ran approximately $40,000. CH cost in 2021 (mayoral year with Ranked Choice Voting) was approximately $28,000.

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At the February meeting, council members Bracken and Newell conceded to the mayor’s request to postpone. I still urged for a consensus that night. After the majority decided we’d postpone, I urged my colleagues to thoroughly research and prepare to make our decision no later than March so that any within our citizenry who wants to run for the District 1 or 2 council seats can plan and act accordingly. (Here we are in mid-April and I am still urging the council to make a consensus at our April 17th meeting -- better late than never!)

Understanding that the deadline to notify SLCO Elections Office of our city decision for the 2023 election process is April 28th, it certainly pushes close to the June 1-7 filing period if we were to choose to leave the RCV program in favor of the primary/general system.

I urge my council colleagues to put the needs of citizens first.  As a governing body, we need to deliberate, vote and get answers and direction to residents in a timely manner.

For me, fair, just, equitable and accessible election of representatives is a process of paramount importance.