The proponents of “ranked” voting in Fort Collins have resubmitted petitions, hoping to put the concept on the April municipal ballot.
Fort Collins Ranked Voting needs 2,517 valid signatures to be eligible for a place on the ballot.
The group submitted almost 2,700 signatures on Nov. 8, but nearly one-third were tossed because they were invalid.
City staffers reinstated 100 signatures, leaving a 647-signature gap, said Deputy City Clerk Rita Harris.
Organizers had 15 days to get the 647 signatures, and on Wednesday, they submitted petitions signed by about 1,300 local registered voters, Harris said. Her office now has five working days to make sure the signatures are valid.
The sheer number of signatures indicates the backing for ranked voting — also called instant-runoff voting — in Fort Collins, said petition-drive organizer Eric Fried.
“This avalanche of new signatures in only two weeks shows tremendous community support for a better way to hold elections,” Fried said.
Ranked voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority of first-place votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated; if you voted for that candidate, your vote is counted for your second choice, instead of being thrown out, Fried said.
The process is continued until someone receives a majority, he said.
Ranked voting is used in Australia, Ireland and in several U.S. cities, including Oakland, Calif., and Minneapolis, backers say.
The system was approved in Colorado by the Voter Choice Act of 2008. That year, Aspen used ranked voting in its municipal election. But earlier this month, 65 percent of Aspen voters decided to revert to a more traditional voting system.
