The Oak Park village board has opted to wait for a state taskforce report on ranked-choice voting rather than moving forward with putting a village government referendum on the March 19 primary election ballot.
The move went against the wishes of local community group VOICE Oak Park, the Oak Park and River Forest faction of the League of Women’s Voters, and FairVote Illinois, a volunteer advocacy organization. They want the village to implement the voting system. Trustee Brian Straw, who believed the state taskforce report would have no bearing on the village, sided with VOICE Oak Park in wanting the village to move forward with a local referendum.
Other legislatures across the country have already done away with or are considering parting with the traditional voting method in favor of ranked-choice voting. Illinois state legislators passed a law last August that created a taskforce to explore ranked-choice voting and implementing it for the 2028 presidential primary election. The report has an expected completion date of no later than June 30.
Ranked-choice voting is a system that allows voters to rank multiple candidates from most preferable to least preferable. If the village board had moved forward on the referendum, it would have only affected village government offices and no offices from other taxing bodies in Oak Park.
One of the VOICE Oak Park’s officers, Joshua Klayman, gave a presentation in support of the voting system at the board’s Oct. 10 meeting, where the lengthy draft referendum was discussed. Klayman argued that the village board, given its previous discussion and research into the matter, are better educated on ranked-choice voting than the state and would not glean much from the state taskforce’s report.
If the referendum had made it onto the March 19 ballot, the village’s first election using RCV would have been April 2025 – the same ballot that Evanston voters will see ranked-choice voting for the first time. Last November, Evanston voters passed a referendum to implement the system for mayor, city council and city clerk. In waiting for the state taskforce report, the 2027 village trustee election is the next soonest opportunity to vote using RCV for Oak Park. Neither Straw nor VOICE members wished to wait until then.
Village President Vicki Scaman was adamant in her desire to wait for the state taskforce’s report, believing it could address any potential obstacles in implementing the system and might lead to state funding if new voting machines prove necessary for the system. Moving forward with the village’s referendum, she argued, could saddle the county with a mandate with which they cannot afford to comply.
“Waiting two years, from 2025 to 2027, that’s worth it for me to understand if there’s something we’re going to need or if the county is going to need the funding,” she said.
The Cook County clerk coordinates equipment, election judges and polling locations for suburban county elections and implementing a new system could create new operational constraints and costs.
The unknown impact ranked-choice voting would have on early voting caused some concern, particularly for trustee Lucia Robinson, who stated her belief that the state taskforce report would have to address any impact on early voting.
Trustee Cory Wesley was also vocal about his desire to wait for the taskforce’s report, but not for logistical purposes. His argument centered around voter turnout, particularly how smaller elections, such as the one coming up in 2025, have historically lower voter turnout, while presidential elections pull in a larger number of voters. Putting the referendum on a ballot in a smaller election cycle is an inaccurate test of voter desire for ranked-choice, according to Wesley.
“We can go from 26% of the people here to weigh in to 71% – I just do not see why we cannot make that delay,” he said.
Proposed referendum
Do you want Oak Park voters to use ranked choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting or the single transferrable vote, to elect the Village’s offices of Village President, Village Clerk and Village Trustees beginning with the April 2025 consolidated election? (1) If approved, this proposal would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference in elections for Village President, Village Clerk and Village Trustees. (2) If voters still want to choose just one candidate, they can. (3) A candidate for Village President and Village Clerk who receives a majority of top-choices would win. (4) A candidate for Village Trustee who receives more than 25% of top-choices would win. (5) For the election of Village Trustees, any voter who had a winning candidate as their top choice would have a part of their vote, equal to the proportion of votes the winning candidate received in excess of 25%, counted for their next choice. (6) If there is no majority winner for Village President or Village Clerk or no candidates for Village Trustee who receive more than 25%, the last place candidate would be eliminated. (7) Any voter who had that candidate as their top choice would have their vote or partial vote counted for their next choice. (8) This process would repeat until a candidate receives a majority of votes in a round of counting for Village President or Village Clerk or three (3) candidates receive more than 25% of the vote for Village Trustee making them the winners. (9) This proposal would eliminate a separate primary election for Village President, Village Trustee and Village Clerk.