Park City officials on Thursday formalized the move to ranked-choice voting for the municipal election in November, a departure from the traditional method that often includes primary elections Parkites have grown accustomed to over the decades.The approval was a split vote, though, that reflected c oncerns from some Parkites about the alteration. City Councilors Tana Toly, Bill Ciraco and Ryan Dickey cast the votes in favor of ranked-choice voting, while City Councilor Ed Parigian dissented.Nobody testified prior to the vote in the week after the elected officials received disparate comments from the public.Ciraco indicated he had mixed opinions about the decision, particularly regarding the timing with a City Hall election approaching.“Do I feel comfortable changing, kind of, the election process in an election year when I’m not one of the persons up, running up, for office?” he said as he explained his considerations.Ciraco said he also studied Heber City, which in the past has employed ranked-choice voting, as he readied for the meeting on Thursday and said the city in Wasatch County is debating the future of the system.“I’m willing to try. I’m willing to give it a shot,” he said.Parigian expressed concerns, saying he did not “think anybody knows, despite what they claim, that this is a better or worse choice than what we have now.”He said there could be benefits to ranked-choice voting when an election results in one winner rather than multiple ones like a City Council contest in Park City, as well as during a partisan election rather than the nonpartisan contests in the city. Parigian also inferred that the traditional voting method could result in a more robust campaign than one employing ranked-choice voting.“I don’t buy the argument that it would be easier to campaign because I don’t think it should be easy to campaign. I think this job’s important enough that you should take it seriously and put in the full effort and strive to win. That’s the way it’s always been,” he said.The vote was an approval of a resolution that formally requests Park City be included in a pilot program in the state. The Park City recorder before May 1 will notify the lieutenant governor and the Summit County clerk that the municipal election will move to ranked-choice voting.The decision to move to ranked-choice voting significantly alters the election calendar this year since a primary election is not required. Under the traditional voting method, a primary would have been held in August had there been more than two mayoral candidates or more than four competitors for the City Council. The primary would have reduced the mayoral field to two and the City Council field to four for Election Day in November.The filing period for candidates, meanwhile, will move by more than two months. It would have been in early June under the traditional method. Ranked-choice voting delays the filing period until Aug. 12-19.Some supporters of ranked-choice voting have noted what they see as benefits from a condensed election season. A primary election, as an example, typically would have extended a campaign by several months.The City Hall election in November involves the mayor’s office and two City Council seats, now held by Tana Toly and Jeremy Rubell.The post Park City formally opts for ranked-choice voting, with one dissenter appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less