The newspaper asserts that Ranked Choice Voting "cratered" voter engagement. That's bullshit. by Wm. Steven Humphrey

Starting in January 2025, Portland will have the most diverse, and politically balanced City Council in the history of our city. Full stop.

The reason why we’re able to celebrate this indisputable fact is thanks to charter reform and ranked choice voting, which allowed citizens from every demographic and Portland neighborhood the opportunity to serve their city (and the rest of us to vote for them). 

But despite those two objectively correct statements, local media continues to platform the dishonest cynics who have been fighting charter reform and ranked choice voting from the beginning. The Oregonian, who loves writing intellectually dishonest headlines like this, really outdid themselves with this recent post-election article: Portland’s ranked-choice debut causes voter engagement to crater; 1 in 5 who cast ballots chose no one for City Council. 

Let’s break it down, shall we? Using the word “crater” to describe Portland’s voter engagement, and attempting to lay the blame on the doorstep of ranked choice voting, is not only an unethical choice, it’s factually incorrect. While overall voter turnout wasn’t what it was in 2020 (79%), Portland engagement still reached 74.5%—that’s still three-quarters of our total population. Does that sound like overall engagement “cratered” to you?

 And perhaps it’s true that one-out-of-five voters chose not to rank any candidates for City Council and mayor—though, as a reasonable person, I might wait until that number got a little bit higher before labeling it as “cratering.” And yes, it is absolutely correct that a historically large group of candidates ran for City Council this year, which probably stunned some voters who aren’t used to doing a lot of research. BUT! And let me say this loud and proud so everyone in the back can hear it: Having a lot of candidates who love their community and want to serve it is A VERY GOOD THING. (And it’s even better for democracy.) And while we can definitely do more as a city to make sure minority and low-income communities have the information they need in future races, according to the Oregonian’s own numbers, four out of five Portlanders successfully filled out their ballots without their brains exploding. So actually, I’d call that a big win. 

And that’s my problem with this poorly headlined article: The main thesis seems to be that just because one-in-five Portland voters chose not to cast votes in two races, this is somehow the fault of ranked choice voting. That’s bullshit. And here’s why: Let’s imagine ranked choice voting never existed, and Portlanders were still choosing just a single candidate for every office. Thanks to the general ineptitude of the current City Council—which inspired so many people to run against them—a huge number of candidates would’ve still been on that ballot. And if that had occurred, voters would have been confronted with the exact same conundrum.

Oh, and if you do happen to dip into the O’s article, here’s a little media studies trick: While most news outlets claim objectivity as their guiding star, if you want to spot potential bias, head to the final paragraph of just about any article, and see who gets the last word. In the case of this Oregonian story, the last word was given to a failed conservative Council candidate, Bob Weinstein, who freely admits he was never in favor of charter reform in the first place, and issued this damning indictment of ranked choice voting: “It’s very anti-democratic, to me, to have a result like this.”

I’m curious: Which of the following results is the most “anti-democratic”? Was it three-quarters of the population voting? Was it the large number of candidates who, after 100 years of being shut out of elections, were finally given a chance to fairly compete? Was it the actual result, which was getting (as mentioned before) the most diverse and politically balanced City Council we’ve had in the history of our city? Or was it “anti-democratic” simply because he lost?

Unfortunately, we’ll probably be reading a lot more thoughtless headlines and hearing a lot more anti-Charter Reform language from Portland’s conservative business class. Frankly, the old system worked GREAT for them, giving the wealthy an outsized voice and control over policy in City Hall. And even though the new council will have conservative voices who will fight valiantly to ensure the rich continue getting richer, that’s not good enough for those who want absolute power. In short, if you like what conservatives did to Measure 110, keep an eye out on what they’re planning to do to Charter Reform.

For the rest of us, there’s an old saying: “Progress, not perfection.” We’re sorry to break the hearts of the Oregonian headline writers and the bad actors who have dominated Portland politics for over a century, but new, vital forms of government—like any new plan or system that regular folks like you put into action every single day—will NEVER be perfect from the start, and need time and grace in order to operate at top proficiency. That said, if one-in-five voters refusing to choose a candidate in two races is the worst thing to happen in an election where we make sweeping changes for the very first time? I’d say democracy continues to be in pretty good shape. 

But that’s just my opinion—from deep in the “crater.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the allies would continue helping Ukraine to prepare the country for the continuation of the conflict with Russia in 2025. The North Atlantic Alliance should adjust itself to "changes in Ukraine's needs" and the situation on the battlefield. The US Secretary of State made such statements amid reports about North Korean troops fighting Ukrainian forces on the front lines. Blinken also called on the allies to "respond harshly". NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who supports the idea of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, calls for the continuation of the "bloody massacre," Maria Zakharova, an official representative for the Russian Foreign Ministry said, RIA Novosti reports.

ARRIVE Together of Middlesex County, NJ, run by University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) at Rutgers Health, has expanded its partnerships to include the East Brunswick, South River and Cranbury police departments, making New Jersey the first state in the nation to have a statewide law enforcement and mental health alternative response program.

ARRIVE Together of Middlesex County, NJ, run by University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) at Rutgers Health, has expanded its partnerships to include the East Brunswick, South River and Cranbury police departments, making New Jersey the first state in the nation to have a statewide law enforcement and mental health alternative response program.

Discover Taurus and Aquarius compatibility in love, friendship, and more. Uncover their unique strengths, challenges, and potential for a balanced relationship

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What is deceptive, especially in the West, is our assumption that repetitive and mindless jobs are dehumanizing. On the other hand, the jobs that require us to use the abilities that are uniquely human, we assume to be humanizing. This is not necessarily true. The determining factor is not so much the nature of our jobs, but for whom they serve.

‘Burnout’ is a result of consuming yourself for something other than yourself. You could be burnt out for an abstract concept, ideal, or even nothing (predicament). You end up burning yourself as fuel for something or someone else. This is what feels dehumanizing. In repetitive physical jobs, you could burn out your body for something other than yourself. In creative jobs, you could burn out your soul. Either way, it would be dehumanizing. Completely mindless jobs and incessantly mindful jobs could both be harmful to us.

Rob Bristow, JISC as Programme Manager for e-Administration gives a plenary talk on Institutional Responses to Emergent Technologies - What JISC is Doing. As users of all sorts become more familiar with new technologies (including both Web 2.0 type software tools and user-owned devices) and become used to, and expectant of, managing their own data through 'self-service' applications and systems, questions are asked of institutions as to how they will respond to these new demands. JISC has been investigating this area through strands within its e-Learning and Users and Innovation programmes which have been focussed in the main on the learners' and users' experience. JISC has recently funded a further series of projects that address the way that institutions are responding to these new challenges, looking at organisational policies, practice and strategies, as well as funding pilot projects that demonstrate actual institutional responses. This work is in its early stages but the scope of the responses to the call for projects and some of the early results of the landscape study will provide some interesting real life information about institutional responses from across the sector. This talk will describe the work that JISC is doing and relate it to the Institutional Web Manager world.

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 12:00pm
Location: Intramural Sports Building
Organized By: Maize Pages Student Organizations

Recreational Sports, in partnership with Michigan Esports and Alienware, are hosting a drop-in gaming and esports lounge at the Intramural Sports Building from November 12th - 17th!

The game lounge will be open at 11am daily for drop-in play for all students and recreational sports members, and will also feature competitive performances from the Michigan Esports team in the evenings!

During the week, there will also be giveaways for participants, and lots of product demos for participants to test the latest and greatest gaming equipment!

Stop by with some friends and play games together!

The Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada (HRAI) announced that it received a notice from Enbridge indicating a change to its carbon monoxide (CO) alarm response policy that will align Enbridge with industry-established best practices and will trigger the fastest response time possible. 

TASHKENT, 22 June 2015 – A two-day training course on improving judicial responses to human trafficking, organized by the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, in co-operation with the Lawyers’ Training Centre under the Uzbek Justice Ministry, was launched today in Tashkent.

Some 20 newly-appointed judges from all regions of Uzbekistan will discuss effective ways to use international and national legal tools in dealing with criminal cases on trafficking in human beings as well as relevant good judicial practices and challenges.

“The training course is designed to help the judges to assess the implementation of the non-punishment principle for victims while handling the criminal cases,” said Ambassador Gyorgy Szabo, Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan. “This kind of training course serves as a platform for the exchange of experience and professional expertise related to Human Rights Protection.”

Askar Gafurov, Director of the Lawyers’ Training Centre, said: “The training course is one of the commitments of Uzbekistan to improve the effectiveness of countering human trafficking and to develop a comprehensive victim-support system through expert advice and in service training activities.”

The training course is part of  the OSCE Project Co-ordinator’ s long-term project to assist Uzbekistan in combating trafficking in human beings.

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TASHKENT, 2 December 2015 - Effective criminal justice responses to terrorism, based on the rule of law, were the focus of a two-day seminar organized by the OSCE Secretariat’s Action against Terrorism Unit, in co-operation with the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, which concluded today in Tashkent.

The seminar gathered about 30 representatives of national agencies involved in counter-terrorism and focused on the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s (GCTF) Rabat Memorandum on Good Practices for Effective Counterterrorism Practice in the Criminal Justice Sector. Experts in the field of criminal justice presented good counter-terrorism practices developed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the work the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) is pursuing in this area.

“This two-day seminar is a follow-up to an assessment visit by the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (UN CTED) in April this year, which the OSCE contributed to,” said the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan Gyorgy Szabo in his opening remarks. “The seminar aims at promoting internationally recognized good practices that show how to balance rule of law concerns with effectively preventing and combating terrorism.”

Among other topics, the participants discussed the effective co-ordination between domestic government agencies and the importance of international co-operation, particularly when being confronted with terrorism. The seminar also highlighted the need to ensure the protection of sensitive intelligence and law enforcement information in terrorism cases, as well as for adopting incentives for suspects to co-operate with state authorities in the investigation and prosecution of terrorism offenses.

All OSCE participating States and Partners for Co-operation have committed to furthering international co-operative efforts in promoting effective and rule of law-based responses of their national criminal justice systems as part of a global strategy to counter terrorism.

Related Stories

• Winners of OSCE design contest challenge violent extremism with creative cartoons
• #LetsDoodle: challenging violent extremism with cartoons
• OSCE organizes field study in sustainable energy for the OSCE Mediterranean Partner Countries.

The OSCE Presence in Albania on 24 March 2016 launched a series of workshops for the Albanian border and migration police with the aim of raising their capacity to respond to the challenges of irregular migration, particularly in light of the increased migrant flows through the Western Balkans.

The first of the workshops, which are being organized in close partnership with the Directorate of the Albanian State Police and the General Directorate of Border and Migration, took place in Korça, where 20 border and migration police were trained on measures to be taken to cope with the situation.

The subjects were based on trends as identified by Frontex and EUROPOL, and included migrant routes, the pre-screening of migrants, profiling of possible terrorist fighters, and the detection of criminal offences. The workshop was conducted by experts from the Albanian Europol National Unit and the Albanian Border and Migration Police.

The OSCE Presence, together with its Albanian partners, will organize similar workshops in the coming days with the border and migration police in Gjirokastra and in Shkodra. 

Related Stories

• Young people in Albania say NO to corruption
• OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Steinmeier visits Albania, reiterates support for Albanian institutions and its citizens
• Students launch exhibition against domestic violence as part of OSCE Presence in Albania campaign

The Hurricanes' defense struggled in their loss to Georgia Tech, but linebacker Jaylin Alderman and cornerback O.J. Frederique Jr. were two bright spots.

Denver Public Schools adds new technology to improve communication during school crisis responses  Denver 7 Colorado News

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En la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, una edición más de los premios Poder Femenino festejó el éxito de siete mujeres que, con su trabajo y ejemplo, contribuyen "al progreso de toda la humanidad". Leer

Cuesta trabajo ponerse a escribir para cuestionar a Radu Lupu. Cuesta hacerlo por la devoción al monstruo rumano. Y porque esa misma devoción proviene del perfeccionismo con que Lupu ha construido su carrera, abjurando de los adjetivos interpretativos para centrarse en los sustantivos, buscando una relación esencial con la música, encontrando una respuesta pura, significándose en la expresión y en la emoción sin concesiones al artificio, al mercado, al virtuosismo vacuo.

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El 16 de diciembre volverá la vida ordinaria a uno de los emblemas de París, según el rector del templo parisino Leer

Mi querida Lorena Parker, conocedora de alguna de mis debilidades, me alertó el sábado del tuit que había colgado el Ministerio de Defensa para loar a su titular. Se trataba de  un perfil hagiográfico de Margarita, está linda la mar, publicado en la Vanguardia: "Una amante de la vida sana en Defensa" y el Ministerio retuiteó el halago. En la foto se veía a una sonriente Robles regando dos plantas en la terraza del Ministerio.

Es la espiral del silencio: quien no forma parte de los círculos se calla, pero por dignidad.

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A sus 78 años, todavía busca desaparecidos en tragedias. Lleva en el mono las banderas de los 41 países a los que ido a ayudar: estuvo en el 11-S, en el 'tsunami' de Indonesia y en los terremotos de Japón Leer

Los investigadores sospechan que estuvo escondido en zonas de bosque. Él mismo explicó al llamar a la Guardia Civil que no podía soportar la presión de la búsqueda Leer

La ministra de Defensa asegura en el Senado que les movilizaron sólo para Utiel-Requena Leer

Espero, sinceramente, es que si Obama viene a Cuba, no le muestren la nave en la que miles y miles de turistas se llevan una patética imagen de la creación artística cubana.

MTV España emitirá, desde el próximo 28 de abril, el programa 'Gamers', un programa con formato reality show que mostrará la vida de los integrantes de G2 Vodafone, uno de los mejores equipos nacionales de League of Legends.

Blizzard celebra el 20 aniversario del lanzamiento de su mítico juego incluyendo la experiencia original en Diablo III. Esto y mucho más, desde la Blizzcon 2016.  

El secretario de Estados Unidos se reúne con Mark Rutte, y ambos inciden en que el conflicto se ha convertido ya en algo global que afecta "al teatro Euroatlántico, al Indo-Pacífico y a Oriente Próximo" Leer

Esta simpatizante de Putin no tiene ninguna experiencia en Inteligencia Leer

con Víctor Moreno, el hombre de la cámara

El pupilo de Jesús de la Villa dispara las expectativas tras imponerse en el Mundial de Florianópolis, donde consiguió nueve puntos en 11 partidas. Leer

Jevone Morrissey, the pilot who crashed his powerboat in St George’s on Sunday [June 9], has thanked those who came to the assistance of his crew. Morrissey and co-pilot Jordan Place’s BV-31 boat suffered a mechanical issue and hit one of the old railway bridge pylons between Coney and St George’s islands during the Bermuda […]

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources [DENR] responded to reports of ‘spotted lanternflies’ — an invasive insect species — discovered aboard two cruise ships, with DENR noting that “both ships fully cooperated with DENR’s protocols, ensuring the effective elimination of the invasive pest.” A Government spokesperson said, “On September 2, 2024, the Department of […]

The Bermuda Shakespeare Schools Festival [BSSF] is getting set to host their seventh annual event on the occasion of William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. The event’s 2014 programme focuses on youth, culture, and creativity and will take place at the Earl Cameron Theatre at City Hall from October 21 through October 23, 2014. The event’s opening […]

The 7th Annual Bermuda Shakespeare Schools Festival, scheduled to be held at the Earl Cameron Theatre this week is cancelled, as the students had missed too many practice times due to both Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gonzalo. A spokesperson said, “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. “We spoke with the teachers at […]

This matchup replaces the previously scheduled Indiana Pacers vs. Milwaukee Bucks game.

The doubleheader begins on ESPN at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, March 27 when Aaron Judge and the Yankees host Christian Yelich and the Milwaukee Brewers, who won the National League Central in 2024.