Name: The Choice: Documentary Screening and Post-Show Discussion
Start: 2025-06-25T19:30:00-07:00
End: 2025-06-25T19:30:00-07:00
Location: The Wyncote NW Forum

The Choice: Documentary Screening and Post-Show Discussion

Featuring David Daley, Eli Arnold, Candace Avalos, and Shannon Grimes

This event has already occurred

Date:: Wednesday, June 25
Time:: 7:30 pm PDT
Cost:: $0 – $25 Sliding Scale

Venue

: The Wyncote NW Forum
: 1119 8th Ave (Entrance off Seneca St.)
Seattle, 98101 United States + Google Map

Event Format: In-Person, CART

Note: Doors for this event will open at 6:30 PM.

Banner graphic for "The Choice," featuring the title in bold white text overlaid a picture of a cityscape with a highway bridge over water.

Civics

The Choice follows the recent 2024 city council election in Portland, Oregon. Facing a public housing crisis, civic unrest, and the fallout of drug decriminalization, the city overhauled its government, expanded leadership through proportional representation, and introduced ranked-choice voting (RCV)—a bold but controversial electoral system. Through exclusive access to the candidates, real-time election coverage, and Portlanders navigating a new system, The Choice captures a defining moment in the city’s history, where democracy is reimagined, and the future of public safety, governance, and leadership hangs in the balance.

Join Town Hall Seattle and the Kaphan Foundation for a screening of The Choice followed by a conversation with David Daley, a nationally recognized journalist whose writing on democracy and voting rights appears regularly in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and Slate, alongside Senior Researcher with the Sightline Institute’s Democracy program, Shannon Grimes, and the two candidates featured in the film, District 1 Councilor Candace Avalos and Police Officer Eli Arnold.

Panelists

Eli Arnold is a Portland Police Officer and member of the Central Bike Squad, with prior roles on the Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team and as a Field Training Officer. A U.S. Army veteran and former Blackhawk pilot, he served two years in Afghanistan. In 2024, he ran for City Council in Portland’s District 4, focusing on homelessness, public safety staffing, emergency communication, and fiscal accountability.

Candace Avalos is a first-generation Afro-Latina and the daughter of Black Americans and Guatemalan immigrants. Raised in a multiracial, multilingual household, she developed a strong commitment to justice, equity, and community-driven leadership. After earning her master’s in education, she moved to Portland in 2013 and spent over a decade in public service—mentoring student leaders at Portland State and leading environmental justice efforts as Executive Director of Verde. Now serving as East Portland’s District 1 Councilor and Chair of the Homelessness and Housing Committee, Candace is focused on building a more inclusive, accountable, and people-centered city government.

Shannon Grimes is a Senior Researcher with Sightline’s Democracy program, where she focuses on advancing electoral reforms in Washington and Oregon, including ranked choice voting, proportional representation, and Seattle’s innovative Democracy Voucher program. Shannon’s prior work includes policy areas from food systems to caregiving, in the public, social, and philanthropic sectors. She has a BA from Bowdoin College and an MPA from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington.

Moderator

David Daley is a journalist and author of Ratf**ked and Unrigged, two acclaimed books on gerrymandering and democratic reform. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. A former editor-in-chief of Salon.com, he has taught journalism and political science at several universities and now serves as a senior fellow at FairVote.