Dear John,

We hope your spring is filled with promise for a brighter future. The emergence of the vaccine gives hope for an eventual end to the coronavirus pandemic. While FairVote’s staff continues to work remotely, we hope to see you in person in the not-so-distant future. In the interim, we come with good news on the future of ranked choice voting and the Fair Representation Act as cornerstones of changes needed to achieve better elections.

It’s been another great year so far for ranked choice voting. A pro-RCV bill passed the House, more than half of states had pro-RCV bills, and far more cities will use RCV this November than ever before. In the next quarter, our year’s two most prominent elections will feature RCV: the New York City mayoral primary, and a big primary in the Virginia governor’s race. Students keep embracing RCV: we’re now up to more than 85 colleges and universities using RCV.

The Fair Representation Act is expected to be reintroduced in Congress in the next few weeks and invites a crucial discussion about how to change incentives for our elected officials to ensure Americans from across the political spectrum have a real voice in the People’s House -- listen to prime sponsor Congressman Don Beyer’s podcast on it. Currently, our gerrymandered, winner-take-all elections reward elected officials for listening only to a small sliver of their base instead of collectively representing all constituents. We need a reform that is up to the task of these demanding, intractable problems. The Fair Representation Act will take on the root causes of polarization and gridlock by boldly representing American voters across the political spectrum with a simple, three-pronged approach:

1. Multi-winner districts with a fair election system, effectively eliminate gerrymandering by allowing nearly every voter to elect candidates they support.
   
   
2. Ranked choice voting, required for all U.S. House and Senate elections, free voters to support their favorite candidates while encouraging candidates to reach out to more voters for second choice support.
   
   
3. Independent commissions, so that any state drawing district lines must do so either by establishing a citizens’ independent redistricting commission.

And you have likely seen national coverage of H.R./S.R.1, the “For the People Act,” which has been reintroduced as a comprehensive electoral reforms bill. We applaud in particular two key provisions that will make it easier to conduct ranked choice voting elections.

Tip O’Neil’s famous adage that “all politics is local'' could easily be applied to the RCV movement- RCV is gaining quick speed on the state and municipal level across the country. Take Virginia, where Republicans have chosen to use ranked choice voting on May 8 to nominate their candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. These are competitive, high-stakes races, with the top candidates raising millions of dollars in contests to be decided in an “unassembled convention” with more than 20,000 voters. Ranked choice voting will very likely play an impactful role in all three contests; Doc Trexel, a member of the Republican state central committee, relayed the virtues of ranked choice voting in a recent column in The News Virginian. Further, congratulations to the newly-launched Ranked Choice Virginia, which joins FairVote VA as a key advocacy voice for ranked choice voting in the commonwealth.

Utah cities will make final decisions over the next month over whether they will use ranked choice voting this November. Salt Lake City, with a population of nearly 200,000 people, has already embraced the reform. Expect a dozen or more, from big cities to small towns in rural areas. Utah RCV leads efforts in the Beehive state. We plan a mid-May event featuring Utah leaders telling their remarkable story - expect an invitation soon!

Since January, New York City has held four successful special elections using ranked choice voting; with FairVote support. Exit polls by Common Cause NYC and Rank the Vote NYC suggest New Yorkers find ranked choice voting either “very” or “somewhat” simple, and more than half of those surveyed shared they were already familiar with ranked choice voting before casting their ballots, a testament to voter education efforts and advocacy. Once New York holds its primaries for mayor and comptroller on June 22, the number of Americans who have access to RCV ballots will quadruple.

Alaska’s implementation of ranked choice voting for elections in 2022 is on track; the elections office is currently designing and reviewing ballots and developing voter education materials. Alaskans voted in support of ballot measure 2 in 2020, which enacts ranked choice voting to decide a winner from among the top four candidates from the primary, plus a write-in candidate, in the November general elections. In a state where independent voters are particularly strong, RCV promises to have an immediate impact in the U.S. Senate race.

The effort to bring RCV to states across the country is gathering remarkable steam, with new groups in nearly every state. As one example Pennsylvania has picked up steam, with March on Harrisburg joining the movement as the latest advocacy group to endorse ranked choice voting. 

Georgia's controversial new law is unequivocally concerning for voting rights, but includes a generally praised provision (including from the Secretary of State in this NPR interview) to provide RCV ballots to overseas voters. By joining five other southern states in this practice, Georgia will be able to consolidate their state and federal runoffs, and introduces the potential of all primary and federal trades moving to RCV if this first step goes well.

All told, at least 29 states have had pro-RCV bills this year, with Republicans as prime sponsor on a number of bills. We still have hopes of at least one new law that would add RCV to congressional elections. 

At FairVote, we have been busy supporting such progress and implementing a bold and holistic twelve year strategy with the double goal of normalizing the use of ranked choice voting at state and federal-level elections and enacting the proportional version of ranked choice voting through the Fair Representation Act. This means a revisiting of our work internally, from updated org charts to revamped work plans, and externally, with new eyes on potential partners and allies in the movement for better elections.

We have also had a busy start to spring with an eight-episode webinar series running from March 2 through June 8 featuring FairVote staff and esteemed guest speakers. Click here to RSVP for our webinars. I moderated a panel last week on electoral rules and polarization, with speakers including AEI's Yuval Levin and Kevin Kosar and Harvard’s Danielle Allen -- and don’t miss Yuval’s especially memorable articulation of the case for proportional RCV in congressional elections.

All of our webinars are recorded and are available to view at your convenience (or share with friends and potential advocates). Past episodes have addressed topics from “Ranked Choice Voting at Universities” to “Gerrymandering: What to Expect in 2021 and How to Avoid it in 2031”. The next episode, which will go live next week on Tuesday, April 27at 4 pm ET, will center around “The Basics of Ranked Choice Voting Administration.” Please join us for any and all of these episodes! 

I recently was interviewed on the role of ranked choice voting in this year’s Oscar nominations (proportional form) and for selecting Best Picture, which is always a fascinating example of how ranked choice voting can be used in apolitical contexts to achieve a more reflective and accurate result of a group’s preferences. I also enjoyed being a speaker at events leading into voters overwhelmingly passing RCV in Burlington, Vermont’s biggest city, and to the upcoming vote to enact RCV in Austin, Texas.

Lastly, but absolutely not least, we are thrilled to add a new member to our team. Former congressional chief of staff Angela Kouters will head our Government Affairs team with the mere task of winning our reform agenda in Congress, working with both parties as they expand ranked choice voting into more presidential primaries and supporting the growing network of state allies winning RCV across the country. Stay tuned for more additions we’ll need to succeed. 

We look forward to sharing more good news with you over the coming months. Onwards!

Best,

Rob Richie
President & CEO, FairVote
http://www.fairvote.org/