Caden Proulx
The Fort Collins City Hall main entrance sits located on Laporte Avenue March 11, 2024.
Larimer County’s regular municipal elections are scheduled to take place this year Nov. 4. Following a 2022 ballot initiative, this election will utilize ranked choice voting to determine a winner among the seven candidates running for mayor. Jeni Arndt, the current mayor of Fort Collins, is not running in this year’s election to allow for new leadership and ideas to emerge.
This year, ranked choice voting will be used in the mayoral and city council races in Districts 1 and 3. Ranked choice voting was introduced to the U.S. in 1915 but was not widely adopted until the 21st century. Previously, Fort Collins relied on a plurality voting system for its city elections, a system in which the candidate who receives the most votes in a race wins the election — even if that candidate did not receive a majority of the total votes.
Fort Collins voters approved the implementation of a ranked voting system in 2022 with a 58% approval rate, or about 40,000 people. The ballot language specified that it would be implemented beginning in the 2025 municipal election cycle.
“Ranked voting is used for any race that has three or more candidates,” said Delynn Coldiron, City of Fort Collins’ city clerk. “So basically what happens is people will be able to rank all the candidates in order of their preference, and then during the first round of tabulation, they will see if any of the candidates get more than 50% of the vote. So if one of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote, they just win.”
Ranked choice voting aims to strengthen democratic participation and does so by eliminating the need for a separate runoff election, effectively allowing voters to choose a winner in a single, typically high-turnout election. It also reduces negative campaigning and empowers voters with more choice.
New research has examined the effect of ranked choice voting on voters. According to the American Bar Association, studies show ranked choice voting improves upon plurality voting by providing notable advantages in representation, campaign quality, voter mobilization and turnout. Evidence also suggests ranked choice voting promotes greater consensus-building and leads to more respectful political campaigns.
But winning the election is just the first step. Once in office, the mayor or council members assumes responsibilities that directly affect the daily lives of residents. Within the Fort Collins structure, the mayor primarily facilitates all local meetings, sets the community agenda and is the most informed about what goes on in the city.
Arndt was elected the mayor of Fort Collins in 2021. Before becoming mayor, she served in the Colorado House of Representatives for district 53 from January 2015 to April 2021.
“(Arndt) represents the city at various meetings within the city, as well as across the county,” Coldiron said. “She sits on various committees — as well as our other council members — and partner(s) with the Poudre School District, CSU, the chamber, you know, those kinds of organizations.”
While the mayor’s role is highly valuable, the election process and governmental structure surrounding it are equally important. The responsibilities of a mayor affect everything from pothole repairs to long-term infrastructure planning. The design of local government determines how much authority the mayor actually has once elected.
“Most municipal governments in the western United States, including the city of Fort Collins, are what’s called council-manager form of government,” said Sam Houghteling, program manager for the Straayer Center for Public Service Leadership. “So the business equivalent that we often sort of use in class is, imagine that your city manager is your CEO who is running the day-to-day operations of the municipal corporation. And imagine that the city council and the mayor are the board of directors and the chairman of the board.”
To learn more about ranked choice voting, visit the Fort Collins website to find a practice ballot, explanations on how ranked choice works and other related details.
Reach Riley Paling at news@collegian.com or on social media @rileypaling.