SALT LAKE CITY -- Who will be Salt Lake City's next mayor? The Libertarian Organizing Committee's chairman Rob Latham announced the launch of an online demonstration election to illustrate how voters might narrow the field of ten announced candidates for the mayor of Utah's capital city down to one majority winner -- in just one election.

Voters can "Mock the Vote" for the 2007 Salt Lake City mayoral race by clicking here.

The demonstration election launched and administered by local Libertarians uses the ranked-choice voting method, which allows voters to indicate their preferences among several candidates instead of being limited to choosing just one.

"Ranked-choice voting has a track record of promoting positive campaigns and saving election administrators, participants, and taxpayers the significant costs associated with a separate primary election," says Latham.

In 2006, voters enacted into law all four local initiatives to adopt ranked-choice voting on the ballot in the United States.

Although the demonstration election for Mayor of Salt Lake City is unscientific and can be manipulated by over-zealous supporters, some patterns and insights into the 2007 race should emerge.

"Observers of 'Mock the Vote' should be able to see coalitions form around candidates with similar campaign platforms and bases of support," says Latham. "We may even be able to predict the eventual winner."

Ranked-choice voting is better suited to yield a result showing that the winner has the support of a majority of voters, as compared to the two-round runoff electoral system Salt Lake City and many other municipalities use.

Indeed, in 2001 the eventual general election winner Ross "Rocky" Anderson and second-place finisher Stuart Reid received less than half of the votes cast for all 11 candidates in the primary election for Salt Lake City mayor.

"Who knows if a majority of primary election voters that year preferred one of the ten candidates other than Anderson?" asks Latham. "And who knows if third-place finisher Dave Jones -- who received only 28 fewer votes than Reid -- might have picked up enough transfer votes under a ranked-choice system that would have lifted him past Reid and Anderson?"

The Salt Lake City mayoral election in 1995 provided another example of the uncertainty generated by the two-round runoff system, where Rich McKeown received more votes than Deedee Corradini in the primary election, but lost to her in the general election.

Through the primary election on September 11, 2007, local Libertarians will track the mayoral candidates' support -- or lack thereof -- for Salt Lake City's adoption of more competitive and representative electoral methods which are being implemented in increasing numbers of municipalities across the United States.

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Where the 2007 Salt Lake City mayoral candidates stand on electoral reform*

*Positions based on communication from the candidate's campaign or public statements.