Dear John,
Spring has finally arrived in the Washington, DC area and – along with the Cherry Blossoms – we’re seeing sprouts of the 2022 election cycle and the best opportunity yet for more American voters to express their will with ranked choice voting. With another year off to an encouraging start for RCV advocates, we’re also looking forward to celebrating spring, the RCV movement, and special honorees at the FairVote Awards in New York City on April 11th <[link removed]>. We hope you’ll join us!
What’s Happening in States and Cities:
Congress has been quiet on electoral reform and voting rights, but states have been debating a range of legislation, both good and bad for our elections. Ranked choice voting has been a hot topic, with pro-RCV legislation <[link removed]> introduced in at least 24 states. Utah again improved its RCV pilot for cities, Maine’s house has passed a bill to enable all localities to use RCV, and ambitious statewide bills have had hearings and made progress.
FairVote and our allies predict at least 500 cities to be using RCV by 2025, and we are seeing a growing number of certain and likely city ballot measures and actions in the coming months - keep an eye on our ballot measure tracker <[link removed]> that also lifts up statewide campaigns.
Upcoming events:
The list of national and state events on better elections keeps growing. Here are just a few you may want to put on your calendar:
- AEI hosts “What do we know about ranked choice voting?” on Wednesday, 3/30 at 11:00am eastern. The conversation will feature AEI’s Kevin Kosar, New America’s Lee Drutman, and the University of Iowa’s Caroline Tolbert. RSVPhere <[link removed]>!
- The Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center hosts‘’The ABCs of RCV’ on Wednesday, 3/30 at 2pm eastern. They’ll discuss the basics of ranked-choice voting (RCV) and why it is being adopted across the country. Register here <[link removed]>!
- RepresentWomen hosts “Ranked Choice Voting in NYC: Lessons Learned and Next Steps” on Wednesday, 3/30 at 7:30pm eastern. The conversation will include New York Attorney General Tish James and four female NYC council members elected in RCV elections. RSVPhere <[link removed]>!
We hope you were able to join RepresentWomens’ Solutions Summit earlier this month as it was a big success – be sure to visit the online archive <[link removed]> featuring great discussions on ranked choice voting, the Fair Representation Act, and more.
FairVote will shortly be announcing more of our webinars - stay tuned.
What We’re Reading:
Alaskan elections are in the news again as Rep. Don Young’s passing means voters of The Last Frontier will use RCV ballots in the August special election to replace him In November, Alaska’s governor and U.S. Senate elections will both be decided by voters using RCV. Alaska’s unique model of RCV <[link removed]> means that four candidates advance from a primary, with RCV used to pick the most representative winner.
Earlier this year, both the New York Times and the Washington Post published opinion editorials about the promise of ranked choice elections <[link removed]> and the appeal to voters in Alaska as well as places as varied as New York City and Vineyard, UT.
New York Times
In “More Places Should Do What Alaska Did to Its Elections <[link removed]>” (2/15), legal scholar Richard Pildes writes that RCV is one of the “most promising solutions" to ensure that the "candidate with the broadest appeal to voters... wins the election." Describing RCV’s growing success across the country and political spectrum, Pildes writes:
“The political makeup of these areas ranges from blue to purple to red. Signatures in Nevada are now being gathered to qualify aballot measure <[link removed](2022)>for this fall that would create an election system similar to Alaska’s. (That proposal would establish a top-five primary.) In 2021, New York City used ranked-choice voting for its primaries, including the all-important Democratic primary for mayor. Voters in Maine adopted ranked-choice voting, where it has been in effect since 2018 and used for federal elections as well as state primaries. In Utah, 23 cities, including Salt Lake City, are authorized to use ranked-choice voting. To avoid a more factional candidate winning a traditional primary, the Republican Party in Virginia opted to use a nominating convention, with ranked-choice voting, which led to its nomination of Glenn Youngkin for governor.”
Washington Post
In “Underestimating Lisa Murkowski is a Half-Baked Idea in Alaska <[link removed]>” (2/16), columnist George F. Will approvingly writes that Alaska’s combination of an open Top 4 primary and RCV is:
“... a Madisonian reform, designed to encourage rule by majorities whose political temperatures do not skew far toward fevers.”
These op-eds, combined with the Alaska Supreme Court’s decision affirming the new voting system, reflect the growing embrace of RCV from the grassroots to the opinion pages of the nation’s largest newspapers. From Alaska to Maine, RCV is truly the fastest-growing nonpartisan voting reform in the nation.
More Editorials From Around the Country
Ranked choice voting isn’t just a reform popular with thought leaders in America’s biggest papers, it’s also finding favor with editorials boards from Midwestern outlets <[link removed]>. RCV is popular with urban and rural voters across the country and across the aisle.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), February 28, 2022 -'Ranked-choice' would give voters more options and defang toxic partisanship <[link removed]>:"This could dramatically change how candidates campaign, providing strong incentives for them to reach out to a broader base, even to those voters who wouldn’t be likely to rank them as their first choice."
Cedar Rapids Gazette (IA), February 21, 2022 - Cedar Rapids can help put ranked choice voting on the agenda in Iowa <[link removed]>: "Cedar Rapids has an opportunity to help put ranked choice voting on the statewide agenda. Our [runoff] experience from last November shows why this option would be useful."
Rob’s Corner
I find it impressive how quickly the conversation has advanced about the electoral reforms we need to put our representative democracy on track to speak and deliver for the people. Check out the links above and you’ll get a taste of it - and realize it’s just a sampling of the rich thinking going on across the nation.
I feel the same way about our advocacy progress. 20 years ago this month, FairVote staff led the campaign to make San Francisco the first city in the modern era to enact ranked choice voting – now more than 30 cities used RCV last November. There was a time that FairVote was nearly essential for any city or state win – now we have a flourishing set of national and state partners who can make wins happen in a big way.
It couldn’t be more timely. From the time I helped organize FairVote’s founding conference in Cincinnati in 1992, I’ve been deeply passionate about the value of replacing winner–take-all elections with truly fair representation and committed to opening up ballot choices with ranked choice voting. The need for these changes grows more compelling every day. Government at its core must be responsive to the people, and the key role of the vote is to create incentives to spur that responsiveness. Bad voting rules distort incentives. If we don’t change those rules, our government will fail us.
This cause unites those on the left, center and right. This work depends on people coming together for very different reasons, united by a common belief that we need better elections. Seeing that coalition come to life, with all its complexity, is truly exciting. I look forward to seeing what we will do together.
Rob Richie
President & CEO
<[link removed]>[link removed]
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