Dear John, 

Join us this week on Wednesday, May 12 at 4pm ET for our next webinar, “Ranked Choice Voting’s Benefits for Candidates and Voters of Color”.

New research from FairVote suggests that candidates of color benefit in RCV elections, making gains and building support through successive rounds of an RCV election and through the way voters utilize the ballot itself to rank candidates. Voters of color are also more likely to rank multiple candidates without dividing community support when multiple candidates of color run for the same position.

Our panelists will discuss how RCV contributes to power-building in communities of color. They'll review the latest research findings and examine how RCV is a crucial component of securing more representation in the U.S.

Learn about the panelists: 

• Sean Dugar serves as the Education Campaign Program Director for Rank the Vote NYC. To date, Sean has worked on or managed over a dozen candidate and issue campaigns, including coordinating Democratic Party and African American outreach for California State Treasurer John Chiang, organizing faith conversations in support of marriage equality, rallying Bay Area communities in opposition to the death penalty and in favor of criminal justice reform, as well a campaign that registered over 10,000 new voters in Alameda County in 2004.
• Deb Otis is a Senior Research Analyst in the Law and Policy Department. She is a founding member of Voter Choice Massachusetts, the campaign to win RCV statewide in Massachusetts, and she joined FairVote to continue her work supporting electoral reform at the national level. One particular area of interest is improved representation for women and people of color at the local, state, and federal levels. Deb is a graduate of Boston University with degrees in Economics and Physics.
• Myrna Melgar was elected San Francisco District 7 Supervisor in November 2020. Supervisor Melgar is an urban planner, economic development and housing policy expert. Myrna formerly worked as the Executive Director of the Jamestown Community Center, Deputy Director of the Mission Economic Development Agency, Director of Homeownership Programs at the Mayor’s Office of Housing during the Newsom Administration, and served as President of the City Planning Commission and Vice President of the Building Inspection Commission. 
• Marvin Randolph is the President of ONYX Communications and Southern Elections Fund. He has been an electoral organizer for over 35 years, leading voting and organizing campaigns in over 31 states at the Democratic Party, NAACP, Service Employees International Union, Project Vote, NAACP National Voter Fund and Community Change. ONYX managed programs totaling over $3.5 million for clients in GA, MI, WI, IL, CO, CA and TX during the 2020 election cycle.

We hope you can join us!

Ashley Houghton
Communications Director, FairVote

P.S. - If you missed any of our webinars from this series, or want to see what’s coming up, click here.