By Cassie Goff | [email protected]

In January, we reported the Cottonwood Heights City Council voted to approve ranked choice voting within the city, as their last official action of 2018. The anticipation was that residents would be able to take advantage of ranked choice voting in the 2019 election. 

On March 5, City Manager Tim Tingey reported ranked choice voting will not be available for this upcoming election. 

Since Salt Lake County facilitates voting for over 15 different cities, including Cottonwood Heights, West Valley City, West Jordan, Murray, Midvale, Riverton, Sandy and Salt Lake City, among others, the county will not be prepared to utilize ranked choice voting this year.

“We could go to another county,” Tingey informed the city council, “but our recommendation would be to work with the county and not implement ranked choice voting.”

Mayor Mike Peterson expressed that the council understood this had always been a possibility. “The vote was subject to making sure the county was on board and ready to facilitate.”

The county still needs to purchase the appropriate equipment, among other tasks, in order to be ready to facilitate ranked choice voting. “It’ll be two years from this upcoming election,” said Tingey.