Oregon voters will decide on adopting major electoral reform next year

Oregon lawmakers voted largely along party lines on Sunday to place a measure on the ballot next year that would ask voters whether to reform the state's electoral system by adopting a form of ranked-choice voting. Lawmakers also unanimously voted to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot that would empower legislators to impeach and remove statewide executive officials for abuses of office.

If approved by voters, the ranked-choice proposal would cover primary and general elections for president, Senate, House, and statewide executive offices, though it notably would exclude elections for the state legislature itself. Local governments would also be allowed to choose whether to adopt ranked-choice voting for their own elections.

Ranked-choice voting works by letting voters rank the candidates from their first preference to last preference. If no candidate wins a majority among first-preference votes, then the last-place candidate gets eliminated and has their votes reallocated to each of their voters' next preference. This elimination and reallocation process repeats until one candidate takes a majority of the remaining votes.