Portland Civic Organizations Support Charter Reform Measure
On Thursday, July 7th, Building Power for Communities of Color, the League of Women Voters of Portland, Next Up, and the Portland City Club all announced their strong support for the 2022 Portland Charter Reform ballot measure that will amend the city charter and change how City Council is structured and elected. The measure was referred to Portland voters in a 17-3 vote by the 20-person Charter Commission that spent 18 months researching and collecting data and community input to build a recommended proposal.
“Portland needs this measure to pass. In order for democracy to work for all of us, it must include us all. This is our shot to make Portland the city that works for all of us and shape a brighter future for youth,” said Elona J Wilson, Executive Director of Next Up, a local youth civic engagement and leadership development organization. “This measure will build a system that meaningfully represents voters and gives us more voice and choice when filling out our ballots.”
Multiple polls have confirmed that Portland voters strongly support all of the measure’s components, and research suggests that pairing multi-member districts with ranked choice voting will give greater voice to women, voters of color, renters, low-income voters, and more. The endorsements from prominent civic organizations have set the stage for a broad, diverse coalition to come together in support of the ballot measure as the campaign takes shape.
“We have a chance to adopt a real solution that will bring more voices into our local democracy by allowing voters to rank candidates, establishing district representation, and creating a more effective and functional government with a city administrator,” said Jenny Lee, Managing Director of Building Power for Communities of Color, the political nonprofit which will be leading the campaign to pass the charter reform measure. “Portlanders want real, meaningful change, and this November, we have the chance to do that.”
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