Boston’s failures in last week’s election have raised concerns about the ability of its elections department, which is currently under investigation by the secretary of state’s office, to handle a “dramatic” shift toward a preferential voting system.

Opponents of a Council proposal to overhaul the city’s election process with a ranked-choice voting system, in which voters would rank their favorite candidates, took advantage of last week’s lack of ballots to prove that Boston does not is not equipped to manage “radical changes” to its electoral system.

“Rich-choice voting is deeply flawed and should be kept away from Boston,” MassGOP spokesman Logan Trupiano said. “Before even considering sweeping changes to our electoral process, Boston must first prove it can manage basic elections.

“Mayor Wu must be held accountable for this total failure,” Trupiano added. “With the Secretary of State’s office right here in Boston, how could such a mistake happen? Despite 766,200 ballots being printed and delivered, polling places across the city ran out of ballots. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Secretary of State William Galvin launched an investigation at the Boston Elections Department and is considering receivership after a series of Election Day snafus left polling places in several neighborhoods short of ballots, reflecting what it described as “incompetence » from those responsible for municipal elections.

Galvin placed Boston’s elections department under receivership in 2006, after similar vote shortages hampered that year’s November state election, in which former Gov. Deval Patrick was elected.

The secretary of state’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Last week, Mayor Michelle Wu initially blamed the lack of ballots on the high turnout. His office later said there had been a “calculation error in the formulas for setting the delivery of ballots for precincts that would be processed before Election Day.”

The city’s electoral failures came amid a push by the City Council, led by the body’s president, Ruthzee Louijeune, to move to ranked-choice voting — a process by Boston Election Department officials. I already said this would create operational challenges, additional costs and extend the time needed to count ballots on election night.

A spokesperson for Mayor Wu said in a statement that “the City of Boston Election Commission will always fulfill its mission of administering free and fair elections in accordance with the laws that define election procedures in the Commonwealth.”

“We continue to work closely with the Secretary of State’s office and conduct our internal review to identify necessary improvements to find the most effective and efficient ways to ensure full access to the ballot,” Door said -Wu’s word.

Gregory Maynard, a political consultant and executive director of the Boston Policy Institute, said, however, that the way the city handled last week’s election “does not bode well for Boston’s version of ranked-choice voting.”

“One of the main advantages of Cambridge, Massachusetts’ version of ranked-choice voting is that it does not require a preliminary election, so the city can focus solely on Election Day in November,” Maynard said. “The plan Boston is pursuing is still in its preliminary stages and adds all this complexity to the actual vote counting in November.”

Paul Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said “ranked voting fails to deliver on its promises” and “only elects a winner by eliminating ballots.”

“Even if Boston could hold its election without controversy, ranked-choice voting is a bad idea,” Craney said.

Larry DiCara, an attorney and former city council president, called ranked-choice voting “a very interesting idea coming from very well-meaning people who don’t necessarily understand how complicated voting is for a lot of people, and how complicated it is. would be even more so.” .”

“I think it’s a good thing for very intelligent people who can understand it, and for people whose first language is not English…I think it’s confusing,” DiCara said. “You have to be careful when you have elections because the people’s right to vote is at stake, and the simpler we make things for people the better.”

A request for comment from council President Louijeune on whether last week’s election incidents raised concerns about the Election Department’s ability to handle ranked-choice voting was not returned.

Louijeune present the proposal in June to “modernize how we vote and how every vote is heard in our elections.” The herald reported last month on a similar statewide get-out-the-vote campaign that is underway. A before the ballot question was rejected by Massachusetts voters in a 2020 referendum.

Some of his colleagues, however, did not hesitate to give their opinion.