With such obvious benefits of RCV in presidential primaries, it’s no wonder so
many states are considering joining Maine in using it in 2024. Dear
John,

This morning, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott launched an exploratory committee
to run for president. Scott joins former President Donald Trump, former South
Carolina and Arkansas governors Nikki Haley and Asa Hutchinson, and two
businessmen ascandidates– with Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem and Mike Pence among
others exploring bids. With each new entry, the chances soar that the nomination
goes to whichever candidate can muster a core vote of 35% even if most
Republican voters prefer somebody else.

With ranked choice voting (RCV) in presidential primaries, all voters would have
the peace of mind to freely rank their favorite choices without “wasting” their
vote. Each party would likely experience a less divisive primary, and enter the
general election more united behind a candidate with proven broad appeal within
the party. The value of this use of RCV was featured in a highly recommended
viewing: aMarch 24 forum on RCVat the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public
Policy at Utah Valley University.

In single-choice primaries, if any candidate drops out before Primary Day, early
voters who picked them may not see their vote count for any active candidate!
That was especially problematic in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries,
whenmore than three millionvoters cast their vote for a candidate who dropped
out before the vote was counted. RCV would ensure those votes count, too.

With such obvious benefits of RCV in presidential primaries, it’s no wonder so
many states are considering it. Maine will use it in 2024 and the Vermont State
Senatejust passed legislation to do so in 2028, with theVermont Public Interest
Research Groupand other state allies working to move this bill across the finish
line. We're thrilled to seepro-RCV bills this year in more than 25 states,
including several on RCV for presidential primaries.In 2020, four states used
RCV for their party-run presidential primaries (which don’t require supporting
legislation); we expect several state parties to go this route next year as
well.

Winner-take-all mindset takes a disturbing turn

In a sign of the deep polarization consuming the country, Tennessee’s
Republican-dominated State House expelledtwo Democratic lawmakers for
participating in a protest over gun laws on the House floor. Both of those
expelled were African American and among the youngest members in the chamber.

Expulsions rarely happenin state legislatures, and are almost always bipartisan
votes where the lawmakers in question are found guilty of criminal activity. The
Tennessee expulsions represent a shift towards politicization of this process.
The fact that one of those expelled already has been re-seated until a special
election by a unanimous vote of the Nashville Metropolitan Council (with the
Memphis council likely to return the other expelled member in a vote later
today) underscores the growing gulf between the parties in many states.

This dangerous division would not be possible without the polarization and toxic
use of gerrymandering enabled by winner-take-all elections. Given today’s
political divides are increasingly reflected in where we live, most districts
are heavily weighted in favor of one major party. Yet with the “spoiler effect”
dominant in single-choice elections, the rise of an alternative party is nearly
impossible. With only the primary election competitive in nearly all districts,
representatives seeking re-election only have to pay attention to the concerns
of the relatively few voters who vote in their party primary – and those primary
voters increasingly fear and loathe the other major party.

The best long-term solution for the United States to escape zero-sum,
winner-take-all politics is proportional ranked choice voting. It would ensure
nearly every district would be represented by members of both major parties
while also allowing independent and minor parties to hold the major parties
accountable. General elections would always matter in every corner of every
state.

Thankfully, proportional RCV is already taking hold in communities across the
nation. Just last year, the largest cities in Oregon and Maine voted to adopt
it, with Portland, Oregon on track to implement it for city council elections in
2024. It was also approved for primary elections by the county board of
Arlington, Virginia –meaning that onJune 20, proportional RCV will be used just
across the Potomac River from our nation’s capital. FairVote’s north-star
legislation, theFair Representation Act, would implement this system for U.S.
House elections.

It’s almost Tax Day! How much of your bill is wasted on runoffs?

Tax Day is just around the corner, and millions of us are rushing to get our
returns in before the deadline.

We all want to know that our hard-earned money is going to something important,
like schools or public safety. Yet in hundreds of jurisdictions across the
nation with runoff elections, much of our money is wasted on unnecessary,
low-turnout elections instead.

FairVote and Third Way’s researchshows that a single runoff election can cost a
local jurisdiction hundreds of thousands of dollars, with costs pushing into the
millions for states and larger cities and counties. Remarkably, the 2020 Georgia
U.S. Senate runoffs cost the Peach State’s taxpayers$75 million– with another
$500 million or soin campaign spending. Of course, with runoffs, we pay more to
get less – elections that almost always have lower turnout than the initial ones
in November!

With RCV, “runoffs” would be conducted instantly as part of the election where
turnout is naturally the highest. There would be no need to pay for an extra day
of voting and vote-counting. The money our governments spend on runoffs could be
redirected to a better cause, or put back in our pockets with a tax cut.

Thank you for your continued support. The RCV movement wouldn’t be possible
without you.
Donate Sincerely,

Rob Richie
President and CEO

P.S. After about five years, FairVote is saying goodbye to our ranking app,
RankIt.vote.

We first developed RankIt five years ago to ensure that the RCV movement always
had access to a free tool for running RCV elections. However, since then the
movement has grown beyond our wildest expectations, and so has the number of
other free, high-quality RCV polling tools. For that reason, we no longer feel a
need to maintain RankIt. You can read more about our decision here, as well as
aboutalternatives to RankItthat you can use. Tweet Share Follow Share Follow
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