How Portland’s one-of-a-kind City Council elections will work, explained with doughnuts

Portland enters ‘uncharted territory’ with first-in-nation City Council election system:
multi-winner ranked-choice voting.
How will it work?
We explain with doughnuts.
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[@erinrising2799]

the reporter: how can I convince my boss to buy me donuts 🍩🤣

[@johnperry4370]

I don't really care about voting in Portland, but as a teacher, I am fascinated by how well-conceived this video is at explaining an inherently tricky concept 👏👏👏

[@adamd023]

America discovers ranked choice voting in the most American way possible

[@michellegiacalone1079]

Bravo to whomever had to 'eliminate' all of the donuts for this video! Great explanation.

[@PastelCrayola]

This is similar to how Ireland votes. But we cal Single Transferable Vote rather than rank choice

[@lisamcmanus6656]

This explainer is brilliant. We've had ranked-choice voting in Cambridge, Mass., for a while, but I've never seen such a terrific (and fun) breakdown of exactly how it works.

[@tobeytransport2802]

Do you have single member or multi member? Because single member is not proportional, while multi member is.

[@narrowposterior]

Yeah, I laughed at 'one-of-a-kind' as it's how Australia elects its upper house in both federal and state elections.

[@andrew_ray]

Of note, Cambridge has a slightly different rule for redistributing surplus votes from winning candidates. Instead of redistributing fractional votes, the threshold is rounded up to the next whole vote, so that the surplus is a whole number. The ballots for that candidate are shuffled, and a number n is calculated by dividing the number of ballots for that candidate by the number of surplus ballots and rounding down. Every nth ballot is then redistributed, but ballots that do not have another valid selection are skipped and will not be redistributed unless there are no remaining ballots for the winning candidate with a valid next preference.

[@CassieR143]

Ranked choice voting is actually on the ballot for all of Oregon this November!! Hopefully Oregon will vote yes.

[@GeorgeP1066]

This is what the rest of the world just calls STV (Single Transferable Vote, because everyone gets one vote, which is transferable).

[@neilwaldock6272]

This is how we do our Federal Senate voting in Australia. It usually takes days if not weeks to calculate the 6 winners for each state, and the ballot papers sometimes are more than a metre wide. It means that some candidates with very, very few first votes can get elected. Sometimes a good system, but sometimes the results are very strange.

[@maximusrexxx]

I am so excited to see this in action. Hopefully the rest of the state and then maybe the nation will get on board. This is the only way we get out of a two party system.

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

Look at how Alaska chooses their governor. I think that would be a great system for president or other single winner like senators. They don't have party primaries. They just have 1 big primary vote for everyone. Then the top 4 go through to the second round when they have a ranked choice vote with those 4. You could get 2 D and 2 R, or you could get 3rd party or independents in the mix.

[@a.j.c.908]

Not necessarily, only a few countries use this system, most use simpler forms of proportional representation like party list. But RCV is fine, certainly an improvement over FPTP.

[@blazingbattlehawk9626]

How is this gonna help 3rd parties? This won't stop both sides from continuing to say "vote for me #1 unless you want the other guy to win"

[@Simpson17866]

What about a Scoring system instead? Slightly more fair than a Ranking system, and a lot simpler :D Candidate A: Average 3.2/4 Candidate B: Average 2.8/4 Candidate C: Average 1.5/4

[@turoczy_]

Relevant to my interests. On a number of fronts. Well done 👏👏👏🍩

[@erikw2460]

It’s a bit misleading to call this one of a kind. Ranked choice has proven to be more democratic of a system and has been implemented in many other places. Good explanation otherwise though!

[@Freddisred]

a wider adoption of ranked choice voting is in the best interests of everyone, except maybe for the people already in office.

[@fladgyglitz]

The Maple bar has truly earned the seat.

[@gabemead3775]

Great explanation of a rational voting system! I hope to see something similar appear on the National scale sometime within my lifetime. First Past the Post clearly isn’t representing all citizens well.

[@Joshlama]

This is how we vote in Australia. Local elections can be different but we often have group voting as well to make it easier.

[@afropenguin]

This is a pretty good video, This isnt overly odd, we have a Similar system in the Australian state of Tasmania & ACT. The diffence is Tasmania Elects 7 members per discteict & ACT elects 5 members. In Australia we also number our candidates which means theirs only one row and not a big ballot of bubbles.

[@xtymps]

This was helpful, but I wish a tad bit more time had been spent on helping people understand the "fancy math" part of this process. Is there any way to do another video with more info on that? Great work, at any rate. Let's hope Portland proves that Ranked Choice Voting is good for democracy. (Please god, keep the fringe quack candidates away.)

[@nathanheinl7975]

CGPGrey has a fantastic video on the first past the post voting system, and it boggles my mind that we dont use these alternatives to what we have now. Great job on your explanation!

[@justayoutuber1906]

"MMmm...Donuts." - Homer J Simpson

[@benjaminjoseph863]

While I am slightly less confused than before, for some reason I sure would love a maple bar right now!

[@redpandadrooper]

This is some excellent journalism 😂

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

The counting is complicated but the voting is simple. You just rank the candidates in order of preference. You don't have to think about tactical voting by guessing who other people will vote for because if your first or second preference gets eliminated your vote gets reallocated to your next choice!

[@Likeacannon]

This was helpful and clever, thank you.

[@PaulHo]

I'm voting Boston Cream party.

[@Hankinator6286]

Wow. What a fair system.

[@jiffyb333]

Incredibly informative and fun to watch! Thank you for this invaluable resource.

[@kevmoo]

So well done! 🎉🎉🎉

[@wagtag_]

Sydney, Australia is having it's local council elections this weekend with the same system! Congrats Portland, you're gonna get the candidates that make the most people happy! Make sure you all vote with your hearts, since there are no wasted votes in ranked choice

[@florianplack2973]

Awesome video! Much luck to the election candidates from Hamburg, Germany 🍩🥨

[@PhoenixFires]

Expensing those donuts in the office. 🧠🧠🧠

[@kerryannboyko4175]

I've been fighting for election reform for 20+ years and you explain the STV system brilliantly.

[@CecilAlucardX]

So glad this is happening, and in my hometown to boot!

[@curtisbullock9739]

Very well done!

[@ajbrown2845]

brilliant, perfect explanation ... and now I want a doughnut!!

[@miggitymikeb]

Great video on RCV

[@RandomLurker244]

Such a well made video, kudos.

[@favretheundead]

this is such a good idea

[@PremierCCGuyMMXVI]

Elections and donuts! A delicious combination!

[@kenlandon6130]

Ireland uses this system. Nothing too radical.

[@Katsuragi7]

Cool 😎

[@noealva]

Love this system!

[@RCSVirginia]

No Chocolate-Iced Donut with Holland Cream filling? Blasphemy! ... Excellent explanation! I just hope that the voters will figure it out.

[@saltwalk]

This system sounds good to me! I guess the draw back is that everyone needs to do their research on all candidates in order to rank their ballots properly, and that might be really difficult to do for most people.

[@gattiger91]

This was an awesome explainer, nice work. And now I am craving a donut… 😂

[@matthewmannion4227]

This is a great video

[@th.nd.r]

Old fashioned, maple bar, and chocolate! Heck yeah what a trio

[@BeanDar]

Lol nobody talking about eating the confetti at the end

[@StarEeyed143]

Donuts are always a great way to teach the population complex voting systems. This is great!

[@noaheg]

This looks like such a fun video to make

[@OurHourglass]

Those are some solid donut choices.

[@willallen4921]

Heart PDX. Wonderful video Teresa Mahoney!!!

[@treverthetree]

Finally!

[@RobertJarecki]

This means that I'm gonna have to stop at Dunkin' Donuts today for some *_Chocolate Cream Filled Donuts_*

[@rwssinor]

Fabulous explanation.. now if we could only get 100% of the voting population to get out and vote 🎉

[@Ashinle]

2:28 "Boo that was my first choice" hahaha

[@lawden210]

This video has just made me hungry for donuts

[@apollofell3925]

Nothing CGP didn't explain to my generation 10 years ago. Now that all of us are old enough to vote, we voted for a better system.

[@lukas______]

Voter fraud. Apple fritter is #1

[@adrianthoroughgood1191]

I wish we could expense these delicious donuts! Hold on, I've got an idea!

[@ccrozz99]

I shouldnt be trusted with voting if my choices were cake, filled and powder sugar 😭😭

[@dylankenney9323]

Now we do the state!!

[@mors134]

I mean this makes total sense but I mean this is how my entire country has done elections for a long time now so it's not complicated for me.

[@SirFaceFone]

Ranked choice voting looks like a blessing compared to first past the post. Imagine a candidate with 20% of the vote winning.

[@Yachtclub5]

Missed opportunity for a pun. "The maple bar was eclair'ed a winner"

[@stephenspackman5573]

Interesting that you managed to elect my acceptable compromise doughnuts.

[@jaymorf7374]

Great explainer but leaves a question unanswered: suppose chocolate did NOT accrue enough viable votes to surpass the winning threshold at the end (no votes for it from old-fashioned)?

[@Tolinar]

Neat

[@r-labs9357]

One day Donuts will turn into a staple for elections

[@rileymcphee9429]

Cream filled lost? RIGGED!!!

[@MrRhombus]

I want those donuts

[@LovedWonllc]

Important question: Where did those doughnuts source from in the opening scene? Cause... YUM. Aside (lol) thanks for the informative and helpful lesson.

[@shmoosmith]

Americans describing democracy: "ok so imagine a donut"

[@djcfrompt]

This is an interesting system, and it'll be cool to see how it plays out. The redistribution of the surplus is interesting, but it makes sense why you need that to ensure that one popular candidate doesn't just lock up all the votes with a huge excess. One thing that's bugged me about RCV implementations that I've seen to date is the absence of a "no confidence" option. I used to be part of a volunteer organization that elected its officers using single transferable ranked choice voting, with the option to vote no confidence after a point and keep your ballot from going to any other candidate while still having it count for the threshold. A lot of the systems I see now seem to eliminate your vote and lower the threshold if all your votes become nonviable. I'm curious how that plays out in this system.

[@hardyworld]

Makes a lot of sense. Can we get state and federal representation to also follow this type of system, please?

[@samsam21amb]

STV has finally made it out of Ireland & Australia! But in Australia (where I live), we just number boxes next to the candidate or party. We don’t do this ugly table.

[@LavenderSpell111]

I would give this two thumbs up if I could. Probably because ranked choice voting (a thing every person in the world needs) is being represented by dessert (a thing every sane person in the world wants).

[@604ckur]

You bit into it at the end while it had confetti on it 🤢

[@veramae4098]

I still don't understand, but I like donuts.

[@coltondodger]

I am fine with the Transferable Vote.... but I am not a fan of the "elimination" rules. It seems to me, to create a system, where the candidate who is "no one's first choice" can end up as a very popular "third" choice. Instead, what should happen is almost the same, except when the second seat moves to consideration, the first candidate is "removed" from the other ballots, and the process repeats. The only way a candidate should be "nonviable" for a seat, is if they already hold one.

[@eddieyang7970]

this is how voting in Australia works

[@andrewohoro]

That isn't how that should work though. If no one wants powdered sugar as a first choice, but they all agree it's a solid second choice, then it shouldn't be eliminated.

[@nedmacallen]

Idk how I feel about this, you should explain more clearly about how if they didn’t like a donut they didn’t have to choose it. I don’t like the idea of my least valued donut getting my vote to win if another donut was eliminated and the votes were transferred. Directly choosing donuts through majority rules will always be the way to go.

[@jmchau]

HOLY COW. City Council election night news is going to be so confusing

[@joao9656]

They eliminated powdered sugar!!! Wtf???

[@Secondary_Identifier]

None of the three winners were even among my top 10 choices (I wrote in for crūller). 😔

[@iangreen2871]

Really like this system, but isn't 25% a little low to declare an initial victor?

[@TRquiet]

The redistribution method is needlessly complicated. Your explanation was great, I get it, but voters who don’t understand the Democratic process have less faith in it.

[@jeffjeffson9587]

This is just preferential voting; Australia has used this in elections since 1901

[@podgeogreaghan1956]

Single transferable vote, Ireland's best export after Guinness

[@Ptaku93]

multi-winner ranked choice voting is just STV with a different name

[@homegovtmule]

We have the same in lreland

[@ReasonQuest]

Quite an appropriate analogy, using donuts in place of our elected officials!

[@xhyeo6399]

I'm confused how 25% was reached as the value of a surplus vote

[@Niklink]

imagine being so american you can't understand ranked choice voting without eating a dozen donuts leaders of the free world lmao

[@antoniohenriquealvim]

These elections are more accurate than the US presential's, for real 💀

[@untexan]

The most important question went unanswered… whose donuts were used to produce this video?

[@dklimenok]

So all six of Vicky's choices went down the drain :(

[@owangejewice]

Anyone concerned about the multiple choice fallacy? The more choices you are presented with, the less difference you see between them. It's like being handed glasses of water with different amounts of sugar in them. 3 glasses, most can tell which is sweetest. 30 glasses, no one has any idea which is sweetest no matter how delicate their pallet is.

[@Juniper-111]

but are they from voodoo doughnuts?