Dear Friend --
We hope you are safe and well as our nation prepares for what is proving to be a historic election next Tuesday. Early data suggests unprecedented voter turnout, with more than 70 million votes already cast early. This number is staggering even when considering Covid-19 precautions. If you haven’t made a plan to vote yet, we encourage you to do so today. Making a plan to vote improves the likelihood of casting a vote and you deserve to have your voice heard this fall.
If you are still wondering about how to uphold safe and fair elections this fall, you’re not alone. We have a round-up of election resources that address everything from various concerns around election security to ways you can participate to make our elections stronger. And if you’re feeling your congressional race isn’t giving you much choice, you’re not alone -- see our Monopoly Politics 2020 report page where we projected close to nine in ten of this year’s U.S. House races within a week of the 2018 elections
Ranked choice voting (RCV) is also on the ballot in more locations than ever before in our nation’s history. If you live in one of these areas, we encourage you to vote for these ranked choice ballot measures:
- Alaska: YES on 2 (enacts RCV for presidential, congressional & state elections)
- Albany, California: YES on BB (enacts proportional form of RCV for local races)
- Bloomington, Minnesota: YES on 3 (enacts RCV for mayor & city council)
- Boulder, Colorado: YES on 2E (enacts RCV for mayor)
- Eureka, California: YES on C (enacts RCV for mayor & city council
- Massachusetts: YES on 2 (enacts RCV for state & congressional elections)
- Minnetonka, Minnesota: YES on City Question (enacts RCV for mayor & city council)
Also, you have the option to use ranked choice voting in next week’s general election if you live in one of these regions:
- Maine (for president and U.S. Senate)
- Benton County, Oregon (for county commission, first use)
- Berkeley, California (for mayor and city council)
- Oakland, California (for city council and school board)
- San Leandro, California (for city council)
- San Francisco, California (for Board of Supervisors)
- Takoma Park, Maryland (for mayor and city council)
- Eastpointe, Michigan (city council special election)
- Portland, Maine (for city council and school board)
If you live in one of these areas and participated in a ranked choice voting election, please consider sharing a short testimonial with our team. We are gathering testimonials from voters like you as we aim to bring ranked choice voting to other parts of the country.
We also have a few updates from our work over the last couple of months we’re thrilled to share with you:
RankedChoiceVotingFacts.com
Earlier this month, FairVote launched a new
website aimed at voters who
are just learning about ranked choice voting for the first time. Our
goal is to ensure Americans - particularly those considering voting
for a ranked choice ballot - can learn quickly about the top arguments
for RCV and our responses to opponents’ arguments against
RCV.
This also meant creating an even shorter, more simple explainer video. This new video aims to help voters learn about ranked choice voting in about 90 seconds.
We encourage you to share this site and video with friends or family who may not know
much about it. Be sure to tag us on Twitter (@FairVote), Facebook
(@FairVoteReform), LinkedIn (Fair Vote), or Instagram (@FairVote) to
answer any questions they may have about ranked choice
voting.
Maine Poll
Yesterday,
we broke the results of a SurveyUSA poll of Maine voters with the
Bangor Daily News.
Findings and analysis from the poll can be found on FairVote’s website with an interactive ranked choice voting simulation. This allows you to visualize what it’s like to eliminate the last-place candidate and see the redistributed second choices among all voters and key demographics.
The survey found:
- Support for ranked choice voting grows. Large majorities of Mainers believe it is important that candidates win with a majority (75.4%) and that ranking candidates is easy (80.0%). All age groups showed high levels of understanding of ranked choice voting.
- Sara Gideon currently holds a narrow lead. In the hotly-contested U.S. Senate race, Gideon starts with a small lead over Sen. Susan Collins in the first round, and expands her lead to 51% - 49% in the final “instant runoff” round. Results are within the survey’s margin of error.
- Joe Biden is favored to earn at least 3 of 4 electoral votes. Maine will use ranked choice voting for the presidential election for the first time, with two electoral votes going to the statewide winner and one electoral vote to the winner of each congressional district. Biden has first-round majorities in the statewide tally and in the first congressional district. The second congressional district appears likely to need multiple rounds to determine a majority winner. In the survey’s ranked choice tally for the second district, Biden expands his 49% first-round total to a 51%-49% lead in the “instant runoff.” Donald Trump's only chance to win an electoral vote from Maine is to gain ground in the second district.
- Rankings vary by office. 57% of respondents indicated they plan to rank at least two choices in the senate race, but only 39% ranked presidential candidates. Supporters of the non-major-party candidates are most likely to rank additional choices, with at least 70% of this group using multiple rankings - as makes sense, given the major party candidates are sure to make the final instant runoff. The group least likely to rank is Trump supporters, only 29% of whom indicated a second choice.
For those who love even more data
(and who doesn’t?), check out FairVote’s full report on the results, including key findings, crosstabs, and
ranked choice tallies.
RankIt.Vote
Ranked choice voting makes for better elections and a more
representative democracy. It also makes for better decision-making as
a group.
To that end, FairVote has also
released a 2.0 version of RankIt.Vote, a web-based ranked choice voting app.
Rankit.vote allows you to create your own polls for free, works on
desktop, tablet and mobile devices, and has easy share options so you
can share polls with friends. A new feature allows you to use the
proportional voting forms of RCV that’s the fairest way to elect
multiple winners. The more often people try ranked choice voting out
for themselves, they are more likely to support it later, so encourage
your friends and family to try ranked choice voting with a simple
poll, like this one: Which is the best scary Halloween
movie?
Endorsements
Check out FairVote’s updated endorsements page for an impressive list of prominent
political, academic, and media voices who support ranked choice
voting. From Nobel Prize winners to prominent Republicans and
Democrats to Santa Claus (no, really), there has been a groundswell of
support for voters to be able to rank candidates in order of
preference.
FairVote’s team regularly is cited in the media, and it’s been gratifying to see how ranked choice voting has received powerful editorial support this season from papers like the Boston Globe (MA), the Falmouth Enterprise (MA), the Hill Country Observer (NY), the Daily Camera (CO) and the East Bay Times (CA). If you don’t see your local newspaper listed as having endorsed ranked choice voting and would like to compel them to take action, watch Communications Director Ashley Houghton’s guest webinar with FairVote Washington earlier this year on how to write effective letters to the editor. There’s no more timely moment to compel your local newspaper to take a position in support of ranked choice voting!
Webinars
We
continue to see hundreds of participants joining our webinar series,
The Future of American
Elections. If you would
like to watch a previous webinar, you can find them on
YouTube:
- Friday, August 28: The Future of American Elections: Making Every Vote Count, featuring FairVote communications fellow and author David Daley, author Neal Simon, former Utah State Representative Rebecca Chavez-Houck, and author Joshua Douglas.
- Tuesday, September 15: The Future of American Elections: Innovating For A More Reflective Government, featuring David Daley, author Daniel Newman and author Katherine Gehl.
- Thursday, October 1: The Future of American Elections: Redefining Representation for American Voters, featuring David Daley, Harvard professor, political scientist and author Danielle Allen and Former two-term Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld.
- Tuesday, October 13: The Future of American Elections: The Yang Gang Is Ready For The End of Tactical Voting, featuring FairVote president and CEO Rob Richie, David Daley and entrepreneur, author, philanthropist, and former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang.
- Tuesday, October 27: The Future of American Elections: The Conservative Argument for RCV, featuring David Daley, Cato Institute senior fellow Walter Olson, attorney and FairVote board member Jennifer Nassour and Stan Lockhart of Utah RCV.
And be sure to join us for the next webinar November 17, The Future of American Elections: Maine Leads With the First RCV Presidential General Election, when FairVote senior policy coordinator Pedro Hernandez will interview executive director of the LWVME Anna Kellar, assistant professor at Colby College Carrie LeVan and Utah State Rep. Marc Roberts.
Lastly, thank you! Americans are
participating in incredible numbers in the face of this year’s
challenges, and reform and voting rights allies are doing heroic work
in support of fair elections. We appreciate all the empowering acts of
support for ranked choice voting this year, and look forward to
working with you to ensure more voices are heard in future
elections.
Best,
Rob Richie
President and
CEO
http://www.fairvote.org/
P.S. As an exclusive for our donors, FairVote staff will hold a pre-election briefing on Monday, November 2nd and post-election analysis on Thursday, November 5th. Please contact Jeremy Seitz-Brown at [email protected] for details.
