Maja, I appreciate this interview. Good stuff. I do think people are somewhat underplaying the exhaustion.
To be clear, I think RCV worked (ish) but I wasn’t impressed by STV and I think a lot of Portlanders were overwhelmed by the number of choices.
I think the threshold should be higher to run. I’m never going to get my dream crowd of super high information voters but I heard horrifying stories of how people resorted to voting this year.
FairVote suggested something along those lines: a higher signature threshold. That would roll back recent changes made by the City Auditor's office (I think last year) to remove barriers to running for office. Portland currently charges a $75 fee for council candidates who choose not to gather signatures and the fee can be waived if it's a financial hardship for the candidate. I think the higher signature threshold might be a hard sell in Portland, but I've been wrong before! ;-)
Maja, I appreciate this interview. Good stuff. I do think people are somewhat underplaying the exhaustion.
To be clear, I think RCV worked (ish) but I wasn’t impressed by STV and I think a lot of Portlanders were overwhelmed by the number of choices.
I think the threshold should be higher to run. I’m never going to get my dream crowd of super high information voters but I heard horrifying stories of how people resorted to voting this year.
FairVote suggested something along those lines: a higher signature threshold. That would roll back recent changes made by the City Auditor's office (I think last year) to remove barriers to running for office. Portland currently charges a $75 fee for council candidates who choose not to gather signatures and the fee can be waived if it's a financial hardship for the candidate. I think the higher signature threshold might be a hard sell in Portland, but I've been wrong before! ;-)