From the Desert News:

Ranked choice voting made its debut across 21 Utah municipalities Tuesday. And while the results are still preliminary, we’re starting to gauge how Utah clerks, voters and candidates feel about the system that’s been touted as a way to save cities money, increase voter participation, and create a more civil campaign process.

“I think it went really well. I was actually pleasantly surprised,” said Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen, whose office oversaw nine municipalities piloting ranked choice voting — Bluffdale, Cottonwood Heights, Draper, Magna, Midvale, Riverton, Salt Lake City, Sandy and South Salt Lake….

Swensen said her office couldn’t employ the vendor used in past elections to display the ranked choice results because it didn’t accommodate the system — meaning that in the Salt Lake City Council races, candidates didn’t know the precinct level results.

“We need that information,” said Blake Perez, candidate for Salt Lake’s District 1 race, which on Tuesday emerged as the closest of the city’s five council elections.

“We need to know that our strategy worked where we were targeting. … When it comes down to this kind of a race, that precinct-level data is critical, and I hope there are some adjustments made, and we can get our hands on that information,” he said.

The race featured three candidates — Perez, Victoria Petro-Escheler and Richard D.M. Barnes. Petro-Escheler currently holds a 138-vote edge over Perez.

Both candidates couldn’t say whether a standard election would give them a better outlook on where they stand. Both candidates expressed some concerns with the process, And both candidates said there were benefits.

“In District 1, historically it’s hard for them to make sure their voices are heard consistently, and I did love that with ranked choice voting, it really gave them a chance to amplify their voices, to give not just a binary choice, but to participate in a more robust way,” said Petro-Eschler.

But Petro-Eschler also noted that the ranked choice model added more work to her already busy campaign — explaining to constituents that it’s OK to pick multiple candidates, the financial benefits of skipping a primary, “and making the case that this was a safe and evidence-based way to cast your vote even if it was a little different. But it did require energy from us to educate.”

Perez says it was hard to gauge how the District 1 voters he spoke with felt about the new system.

“There was no clear consensus on ranked choice voting. A lot of people were frustrated. A lot of people support it,” he said. While it’s frequently lauded as a way to increase civility on the campaign trail, he said there is a difference between what candidates say in public, and what they say while canvassing.

“We’ve certainly heard whispers of some negative campaigning going on and that’s just at the doors, not a public setting,” he said.