The nonprofit group Ranked Choice Voting for Longmont, co-founded by University of Colorado Boulder student Dillon Rankin and former Longmont City Council at-large candidate John Lembke, held its first “campaign kickoff event” virtually on Monday evening. Attendees included a mix of ranked choice voting supporters and skeptics alike. As far as accomplishments to date, Ranked Choice Voting for Longmont has made several this year, said Rankin, who serves as the group’s executive director. Among them, RCV for Longmont incorporated itself as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, earning it tax-exempt status. The group also collected over 700 signatures over the summer in a petition to the City Council in support of ranked choice voting, which received the support of 10 out of 12 candidates in the 2025 City Council election, and all four of the winners: Mayor-elect Susie Hidalgo-Fahring, Ward 2 Councilmember Matthew Popkin, and the two new at-large City Council elects, Jake Marsing and Crystal Prieto. The new council members will be sworn in Dec. 2. The increased attention and awareness over the summer ultimately led to the City Council voting to hold a study session on ranked choice voting early next year, the date of which has not yet been announced. During the presentation, Rankin showed an example of a mock ranked choice voting ballot that the group uses at events that gives voters the option to rank a first, second, third and fourth choice. The topic was to vote on the best place to swim in Longmont: Union Reservoir, the Rec Center, Centennial Pool, or Sunset Pool. “Say I liked Union Reservoir the best. I’d put that in the first choice column. You know, then I liked Sunset Pool a lot. So I’ll put that in the second choice column. And then I’m not super big on the Rec Center or Centennial, so I’ll put that in the third and fourth choice columns,” Rankin explained. Rankin highlighted that the group is nonpartisan. “We are super cross-partisan. Democrats, Republicans, third parties, unaffiliated; if you believe in the power of ranked choice voting to strengthen local democracy, you have a space here,” Rankin said. He said the group aims to implement ranked-choice voting for all seven members of the Longmont City Council in time for the 2027 regular city election. Advocates for ranked choice voting in Longmont are already discussing what the next two years of outreach and campaigning could look like, with Rankin highlighting the group’s upcoming work with the soon-to-be seated council. In addition to the city council’s plans to hold a study session on ranked choice voting in the new year, RCV for Longmont plans to advocate for a charter amendment referral to the November 2026 ballot. Not everyone in Longmont is sold on ranked choice voting, though, with some Longmont locals voicing concerns about other municipalities that have adopted ranked choice voting systems in recent years continuing to experience the same issues that plague elections conducted under plurality voting systems. Gary Hodges is one such individual. During Monday’s meeting, he said that while “strategic voting” is often cited as one of the primary issues within elections decided by a plurality vote, a ranked choice voting system would not necessarily eliminate this problem. Steve Pittman, a member of the Colorado Forward Party, said that ranked choice voting is not about trying to get certain candidates elected or keep other candidates out. “We talk about election improvement rather than election reform,” Pittman said. “We want to make it clear that, you know, we don’t have an agenda here except to make things better and get people more choices.” Another issue raised is cost. Celeste Landry, who serves on the Alternative Voting Methods task force with the League of Women Voters of Boulder County, supports ranked choice voting, but she said that Boulder’s mayoral contest was more expensive to run due to the ranked choice voting system. Rankin acknowledged that ranked choice voting elections can be slightly pricier but said that, relative to the rest of the city’s budget, it would be a fairly minuscule price hike, and that better elections are worth the price tag. Rankin said that the effort will ultimately rely on community participation. “We will not do this by ourselves,” he said, encouraging residents to contact councilmembers, volunteer, and attend next year’s study session once the date is announced.
https://www.dailycamera.com/2025/11/19/longmont-ranked-choice-voting/