THE PROBLEMS with our CURRENT SYSTEM:

• We simply don’t have enough City Councilors to represent everyone fairly (we only have five representing nearly 650,000 people in the city).
• Our City Counsilors have been overwhelmingly white and male, with white men taking three-quarters of the counsel seats since 1995, and less than 10 percent going to people of color.
• We have an outdated “pick one” voting system for City Counsilors, which is shown to decrease voter turnout and lead to unfair election outcomes that aren’t representative of the voter base — particularly silencing marginalized voices in the community.
• Our “Commission” form of government isn’t working. Right now, Commissioners run City Bureaus. But Commissioners aren’t elected for their expertise in running specific bureaus, so they often have little to no experience in running bureaus effectively. This makes it very difficult to move city priorities forward.

This November 8, we can vote yes on the Portland Charter Reform Measure.

The Portland Charter Reform Measure would:

• Establish ranked-choice voting for City Council positions
• Expand City Council by adding 4 new geographic districts, each with 3 new representatives. That’s a huge win for parts of the city like East Portland that have long been underrepresented.
• Create a new governance structure where City Council is focused on setting policies and the Mayor is focused on implementing them

Portlanders fought hard for this measure, and with City Counsilor approval it will be on the ballot. Passing these reforms would be a huge stride in making Portland a more fair, representative democracy – while setting us up to tackle issues like racial inequity, lack of affordable housing, and climate change.