The Park City Council on Monday rescinded plans to hold the City Hall election in November through ranked-choice voting, making the decision after a divisive, closely watched process that culminated in a tense evening at the Marsac Building.
City Councilors Ed Parigian, Jeremy Rubell and Bill Ciraco voted in the majority, while Tana Toly and Ryan Dickey dissented. The vote overturned a decision in March to employ the ranked-choice method in the mayoral and City Council election.
The election will be managed in the traditional method, which creates the possibility of a primary election if enough candidates seek the mayor’s office or a seat on the City Council. Ranked-choice voting would have eliminated the need for a primary. There are two City Council seats on the ballot, now held by Tana Toly and Jeremy Rubell.
Ranked-choice voting involves someone ranking 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. The voting method eliminates the need for a primary election to reduce the field.
The City Councilors spoke extensively prior to the vote, explaining their individual thinking about ranked-choice voting and the process that led to the meeting on Monday.
Ciraco, who at a prior meeting last Thursday prompted the further discussions on Monday, acknowledged making a mistake when he supported ranked-choice voting when it was adopted in March.
“I’ve spent countless hours studying the pros and cons of RCV, including a renewed, intense dive over these past six weeks. My conclusion is that while there are some merits, there is not an overwhelming balance of benefits to warrant changing something as sacred and historic as the way we elect our city leaders,” he said.
Ciraco also said seniors could be confused with the voting method.
“Try explaining ranked-choice voting to someone who doesn’t understand it, and you’ll find that it is more complicated than our current system. To me, on some levels, it feels like bitcoin. I feel like I kind of understand it, but there’s no way for me to help you understand it. And that is a problem,” he said.
Rubell suggested ranked-choice voting provides an advantage to incumbents because there is a condensed election timeline.
“I don’t feel comfortable charging ahead with something just because it’s different and just because it works in other situations when we know and we’ve heard from the experts that it’s not the best form of ranked-choice voting for our form of government and our type of elections,” he said.
Dickey, who has started a mayoral campaign, questioned whether new information had been presented against ranked-choice voting. He also worried about the testimony from elsewhere in the state about the topic.
“If that’s who we’re following, or if Utah County or Heber City now takes the lead for Park City, I guess I’m embarrassed for that. And this seems like a different city than the one I moved to 14 years ago. So, I’m disappointed by where we are. I think this process is disrespectful to our residents, disrespectful to our voters, drives distrust in our election,” Dickey said.
The City Council received public comment prior to the vote on Monday. Nearly 20 supporters of ranked-choice voting cited the reduced costs of the election method since there would not be a primary and the condensed election calendar and said there was no good reason to reconsider a decision it made a month ago. The four detractors who spoke worried about mistakes in the tabulation of the ballots, confusion about how it works, having to train officials for a one-time occurrence of ranked choice as the pilot program for it elapses after this year, or the need to change from the historic election structure. There was also concern about the process that led to the special meeting on Monday.
Diego Zegarra, an Old Town resident, supported ranked-choice voting, noting the reduced costs without a primary and other benefits he sees.
“I do appreciate how it favors moderates versus extremists. Feels like extremism is the way things have been going at the national level. And as a small town, I think we’re better than that,” he said.
Jimmy May, a Park City resident, said there is a crisis in confidence in elections in Utah and claimed ranked-choice voting can generate different outcomes than conventional elections.
“Nothing is more important to our republic, our municipality, than free, fair and transparent elections. And RCV, ranked choice voting, takes us in the wrong direction. Has a lot shortcomings, a lot of failures. They’re, apparently, ubiquitous,” he said.