Park City will alter the mechanics of the City Hall election in November, opting to use ranked-choice voting rather than the traditional method that has been in place for generations.
The Park City Council recently endorsed the alteration for the 2025 election, months after leaders began considering whether to implement the change as part of a pilot program in the state.
Ranked-choice voting has voters rank the candidates in the order of their preference. If a candidate receives greater than 50% of the first-place votes, they win the seat. Should none of the candidates receive greater than 50%, the person who finished last in first-place votes is dropped and the second-place votes on that candidate’s ballots are redistributed to the remaining contenders, effectively as first-place votes. The process continues until a candidate tops 50%. Another round is conducted to determine a second-place winner in an election with more than one seat on the ballot. Ranked-choice voting eliminates the need for a primary election.
The City Council made the decision in the months before a municipal election starts. The mayor’s office and two seats on the City Council — those currently held by Tana Toly and Jeremy Rubell — are on the ballot in November.
The elected officials covered a range of issues prior to opting for ranked-choice voting this year, including the impact on the campaign calendar with the removal of a primary election. A primary would have been held to reduce the field under the traditional system had there been more than two candidates for mayor or more than four candidates for the City Council.
Toly said the lack of a primary election will reduce the barriers for candidates considering a campaign and will reduce costs.
“It doesn’t turn every single project and every single initiative that this council has into an election issue, into a campaign issue,” she said.
Rubell agreed.
“I do like the pro that for a small city we don’t have a yearlong election and can, to Tana’s point, probably get more done during these years,” he said.
City Councilor Ryan Dickey indicated a study has shown voters understand the method and costs of elections will be reduced over time.
The mayor and City Council received split input prior to the decision.
Katie Wright, a Park City resident, encouraged the City Council to institute ranked-choice voting, predicting it will be “really popular with voters” and saying the system “gives people an ability to more fully express themselves.”
“It’s been used successfully. It’s obviously had some very partisan headwinds. But I think these changes to our fundamental structures to ensure that we truly do have good representation, and the people who lead us aren’t out of step with the populace are really important. And ranked-choice voting is a tool in that direction,” Wright said.
Hillary Jessup, who provided a ZIP code covering the Snyderville Basin, though, argued against ranked-choice voting. She said the system is expensive at first and “very confusing for people.”
“I have done ranked-choice voting a couple of times. And you drop someone off … It doesn’t even seem like it’s, that there’s transparency in it,” she said.
Jessup questioned the workings of the system as she talked about voters.
“They hear about one person and they hear about another, so they might put those one and two. And then those people drop off. Then they won’t have any of the people that they were wanting,” she said.
The elected officials on Thursday are scheduled to consider a resolution requesting Park City be included in the pilot.