– VOTE NO on Ranked Choice Voting for the 2025 Heber City Election –
VOTING ALERT: Tell the Heber City Council by Monday, April 14th WHAT YOU THINK
Here’s why.
In the 2023 City Election, over HALF OF THE VOTERS’ BALLOTS were NOT COUNTED with Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).
I’ll explain how this happened below but first you should know that Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) is a radical approach to voting that was implemented in Heber City without asking the citizens.
RCV requires multiple rounds of voting (called ‘preference rounds’) in the one November election. No primary election is held.
As a city, we should want to make voting easier, understandable and ensure that EVERY VOTE is COUNTED, easy to verify, and NOT forced or wasted.
This can happen by returning to traditional voting and by stopping RCV in the City’s November 2025 election.
Please join me in this effort to return Heber City to traditional voting that we can all verify and trust. Let’s make it easy, simple, and straightforward for all of the facts and reasons below.
Sign the petition by Monday, April 13th to tell the City Council to NOT use RCV at: https://hebervote.com/
Or email the City Council at: ccpublic@heberut.gov
Here’s why RCV does not work for the majority of Heber Voters.
See Below:
1. What is an ‘UNDERVOTE’? or ‘OVERVOTE’? (See #1 explanation below.)
2. FACTS from HEBER CITY’s 2023 ELECTION. (See #2 explanation below.)
3. Why do voters ‘UNDERVOTE’? (See #3 explanation below.)
4. Pros & CONS of RCV (See #4 explanation below.)
YOU DECIDE: why use Ranked Choice Voting when it does NOT work for the real voter majority in Heber City?
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1. What is an ‘UNDERVOTE’? or ‘OVERVOTE’?
Definition of Undervote: “When no vote is cast for a single-choice election.” https://ballotpedia.org/Undervote
– Meaning there are NO VOTES marked in a ‘preference’ round with RCV.
Definition of Overvote: “When a voter casts more votes than is allowed. Ballot cannot be counted.” https://ballotpedia.org/Overvote
– Meaning there is MORE THAN ONE VOTE marked in a ‘preference’ round with RCV.
2. FACTS from HEBER CITY’s 2023 ELECTION.
FACT 1: In the 2023 City Election, over HALF OF THE VOTERS’ BALLOTS were NOT COUNTED with RCV because of ‘undervoting’ and ‘overvoting’. You’ll see it below.
FACT 2: The real Majority in Heber City either UNDERVOTED or OVERVOTED with RCV–even after TWO elections using it.
FACT 3: It was actually a minority of the 2023 city voters that voted in all rounds and picked the winners for the City Council races—not the real majority of voters based on the first voter round totals.
The charts below come from Heber City’s Official Canvas for 2023 at:
https://www.heberut.gov/DocumentCenter/View/2163/Signed-Canvass-Report-for-2023-Heber-City-Municipal-Election ; see pages 4, 7, & 9, etc.
In this election there were eleven rounds of voting (‘preference rounds’) with RCV.
FACT 4: It took ten rounds of voting before the first winner was announced but votes were eliminated in all Rounds #1 thru #11.
FACT 5: The first chart below shows that in the FIRST ‘preference’ ROUND 3089 people tried to vote– yet only 2933 votes were actually counted.
WHY?
RCV eliminated 156 votes with the ‘over’ and ‘undervoting’ –meaning either:
— the voter hadn’t voted for any candidate in that first ‘round’ (undervote) or
— the voter marked two or more candidates in that first ‘round’ (overvotes).
Did YOUR ballot get eliminated in the first round? 156 voters’ ballots were not counted.
FACT 6: By the 6th ROUND over HALF THE VOTERS stopped VOTING shown by the 1591 UNDERVOTES compared to the first round total voters:
This 1591 undervotes is the REAL MAJORITY of the 3,089 voters trying to vote. This trend continues where in the 6th through the 11th ‘rounds’ the real majority of voters did NOT vote and were not counted.
Is this the point of RCV—to sadly discourage voters from voting and eliminate their ballots?
FACT 7: In the LAST ROUND of VOTING there were even more – 1709 ‘undervotes’ — which means 1709 people didn’t vote because they did not want to vote for those candidates, or were frustrated, confused, or just tired of the process, etc.
We need to stop this bleeding! What are we doing to the majority of voters in this city by using RCV?
This shows that RCV is NOT working for the real majority of voters in our City.
FACT 8: Next, the link above shows it took until Round 10 of the 11 voting rounds for the first City Council member to win with 1,471 votes (on page 10 at link above).
**Yet that’s only 47.6% of the first round 3,089 voters.
So in this 10th round 1618 voters’ ballots didn’t vote or count— the real majority—because of under or overvotes.
FACT 9: It’s the SAME for the other two winners. They were elected by a minority vote of the 3089 voters in the first round.
The 2nd Council winner received 1,464 votes in Round 9 (pg. 15). That’s only 47.3% of the original 3,089 voters. 1,625 voter’s ballots didn’t count (under & overvotes).
The 3rd Council winner received 1,365 votes in Round 8 (pg. 19). That’s only 44.1% of the total 3,089 voter turnout. Here 1,724 voters’ ballots didn’t vote or count (under & overvotes).
FACT 10: The REAL MAJORITY of VOTERS in Rounds 6-11 are under or over voting for Heber City’s 2023 City election.
**We want everyone’s vote to count equally and fairly. Yet the real majority’s ballots were not counted with RCV. Is this fair?
Are we really making it easier for voters with RCV? These actual results say no.
RCV does not ensure that voters in our City have their ballot count.
3. Why do voters ‘UNDERVOTE’?
There are many reasons.
I know that a main reason is Heber City voters do NOT want to be FORCED TO VOTE for all candidates–so they stop voting.
NO ONE wants to be forced to vote for anyone. It is our free choice. NO one is ever forced to go in and vote either; so we should NOT use a voting system that makes you to vote for people you don’t want or makes you vote to the bitter end in all rounds to be counted.
*RCV forces you to vote thru all rounds according to Utah State Law (see below), OR your ballot is NOT COUNTED—as we see above.
*Also – RCV is confusing—it’s hard for voters in many ways. It’s hard to decide the ranking of many candidates. How do you know if your ballot counted if you vote for the same candidate(s) in the different rounds? How do you know if your vote is counted more than once–or not at all?
*Also – RCV shows that ballot fatigue is REAL.
Ballots are too long and RCV makes it worse.
We can’t limit candidates from running. There is only one election with RCV, no primary election to ‘whittle’ the candidates down.
How many candidates do you want to ‘rank’ at once? 20? 50 Candidates? There is no stopping or telling how many candidates will run with RCV and no primary.
4. Pros and CONS of RCV
PROS – What you won’t hear from the RCV experts.
It’s easier for candidates. Candidates spend less money with only one election—no extra primary election. Candidates take less time to campaign with later filing period and no primary election.
It’s easier for the City workers. They have one election to manage. No hand counting of ballots–just run it through the programmed computer. Don’t worry about overvoting or undervoting. Less work for them. I know these workers and they do work hard.
Yet, is the point of voting to make less work for them? No,– the point of voting is to know what the real majority of citizens want by counting all of their ballots fairly, with verifiable, easy to understand results.
CONS
Many voters are disenfranchised. Their ballots were not counted. Through multiple rounds of voting and the rules of RCV, the real majority of Heber City votes were discarded from under and overvoting. Our City should never, ever make it harder for the real majority of Heber City voters to be counted.
The winners are not elected by a majority of voters. RCV does NOT guarantee a majority winner because the REAL MAJORITY of voters were not counted. Only the minority of Heber City voters ranked to the end. The 2023 Heber City election shows that each candidate won with a PLURALITY of the vote—not the real majority from the first round voter totals.
Voters have LESS TIME to vet candidates with the shorter election cycles.
Decreased voter turnout. In the Nov 2021 City Election there was a 40.92% voter turnout. In 2023 it decreased to a 35.3% voter turnout. This decreased turnout happens in many other States too. See: https://www.heberut.gov/Archive/ViewFile/Item/335 ; pg. 3 for the 2021 turnout number.
RCV is HARDER for voters. It is HARD to rank so many candidates. Ballot fatigue is real. RCV is NOT easy for voters—as shown by the majority of undervotes.
NO AUDITABLE TRAIL for how RCV ballots are counted. This is another reason why many other States stopped using RCV. Your ballot should be counted in an easy, straightforward and verifiable way that anyone can understand. You should be able to verify that your ballot was counted fairly and not eliminated because of an accidental mistake, etc., etc., in so many RCV rounds.
I ask again, why should Heber City use Ranked Choice Voting when it puts the majority vote into question with these MANY issues?
Thanks for reading and caring!
Please contact the City Council by Monday, April 13th. Use the petition or email at the top of this blog.
Heber City should not use RCV for the November 2025 election. After that State law prohibits it anyway.
Let’s make it easy, simple, and straightforward for ALL Heber City voters in this year’s election.
Let’s return to traditional voting that we can all verify and trust.
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Here’s more: Read the actual Utah State Law about RCV.
Go to: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title20A/Chapter4/20A-4-S603.html
Utah State Code on Ranked Choice Voting or the ‘Municipal Alternate Voting Methods Pilot Project’ says this is the only way a RCV ballot will be counted:
“(3) A ranking is valid for a particular ballot-counting phase of a multi-candidate race if:
(a) the voter indicates the voter’s preference for that ballot-counting phase and all previous ballot-counting phases; or (So no ‘undervoting’ in any round or you are not counted for that round.)
(b) in the event that the voter skips a number in filling out the rankings on a ballot:
(i) the voter clearly indicates an order of preference for the candidates; (Don’t mix up your ranking order.)
(ii) the voter does not skip two or more consecutive numbers at any point before the preference ranking that would otherwise be counted for the current ballot-counting phase; (Don’t skip two or more ranking numbers.)
(iii) the candidate next preferred by the voter is clearly indicated by a subsequent number that most closely follows the number assigned by the voter for the previously-ranked candidate; and (Don’t mix up any ranking numbers.)
(iv) the voter did not give the same rank to more than one candidate for the applicable ballot-counting phase or a previous ballot-counting phase.” (No ‘overvoting’ in any ‘round’.)
“(4) A ranking is not valid for a particular ballot-counting phase of a multi-candidate race, and for all subsequent ballot-counting phases, if:
(a) the voter indicates the same rank for more than one candidate for that ballot-counting phase; or (Again, no Overvoting)
(b) the voter skips two or more consecutive numbers before ranking another candidate.” (Don’t skip or mix-up your ‘ranking numbers.)
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How clear is this law to you? I don’t believe this law is straightforward or clear to understand.
Therefore, how easy is it for any computer to verify and count the ‘free for all’ of choices, rankings and rounds possible on RCV ballots–especially with unlimited candidates and rounds in one election? It doesn’t seem that RCV results can be verified by a hand count because of this complexity.
Please contact the City Council by Monday, April 13th. Use the petition or email at the top of this blog.
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