October 8th, 2022 Conference
Highlights
- Next conference on Saturday Jan 21, 2023. Starting at noon, via remote participation.
- Check out space in Lowell on Sunday Oct 16th, 3:30pm.
Starting Local Chapters
You can ask your city/town clerk for a list of registered voters; this is an effectve way to find the Pirates in your community. Send them a letter or postcard, suggesting you meet up.
Some city/town websites have public records portals (i.e., for submitting public records requests). This is another way to obtain a list of registered voters.
Discussion of doing state party conferences quarterly, rather than annually. As a way to get people more involved. Had tried monthly for a while, but that seemed to be too frequent. We'll try one on 1/21/2023, starting at noon, online format.
Joe has access to a warehouse with a decent amount of space. We'll check it out at some point, to see if it would be a good meeting space. Space is near Industrial Ave in Lowell, not far from the Lowell Commuter Rail station. We'll check out the space in Lowell on Sunday Oct 16th, 3:30pm.
The State of RCV in Massachusetts
(Greg Dennis, Voter Choice MA)
Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) eliminates the issue of vote splitting. Without RCV, a candidate can win an election with less than 50%. RCV involves voters ranking their choices. To count: start by counting only the first choices. If no one gets a majority, then eliminate the last place candidate, and go to the second choices.
Current system encourages tactical voting. Or, voting for your least unfavored candidate. First past the pole systems disadvantage third party candidates. Voters tend not to vote for third-party candidates, because they're afraid of wasting their votes. This also discourages third party candidates from running in their own designations.
When major party candidates are the only ones running, it reduces the opportunity to hear other voices in debates.
Without RCV, minor parties are deprived of candidates, votes, media coverage, and debate options. We hope RCV helps to break this cycle, and enable voters to vote their conscience.
Maine has RCV, and collaboration with people who worked on that campaign helped start Voter Choice MA. In 2020, there was a ballot question to adopt RCV statewide, but the effort fell short. At least in part because the pandemic limited opportunity for voter education. Alaska won RCV in 2020, though.
In 2021, Arlington town meeting adopted RCV and sent a home rule petition to the legislature. Easthampton also adopted RCV.
In 2022, Northhampton and Concord voted to adopt RCV, and their home rule petition is current before the legislature.
Local implementation of RCV helps to strengthen the case for statewide adoption. They normalize ranking.
Voter Choice MA (VCMA) works with advocates in cities and towns to help further local efforts to adopt RCV, starting with education and (hopefully!) ending with adoption.
Q: does VCMA have trainings online?
A: Yes. VCMA usually starts by meeting advocates, and introducing them to a playbook for educating, organizing, and getting to adoption. Goal is to help local activists be successful in their communities.
Q: Cost is a common argument against RCV (e.g., "we'll need all new voting machines"). How do you counter?
A: All modern voting machines that are authorized for purchase in MA support RCV. There are two vendors, and both vendors machines are used in RCV. About 3/4 of cities and towns already have these machines. Cost is only an issue for communities that are still using legacy equipment that they should have replaced (for reasons unrelated to RCV). For cities, RCV allows them to eliminate preliminary elections, and the costs associated with that. Ballot printing costs might be slightly higher for RCV. Price conversation is much easier than it was, say, 20 years ago.
Q: Is there a timeline for bringing RCV back to the state ballot, or is the focus on more local adoption.
A: By state law, if a ballot question fails, it can't be reintroduced for six years. 2026 is earliest the question could come back. VCMA continues to re-evaluate this, but local efforts are the main focus right now. RCV continues to pick up momentum across the country.
Q: Who are the opponents of RCV, and what are their arguments?
A: Mass Fiscal Alliance were the main opposition. When it comes to ballot questions, the default position is no (and there's research to back this up). In a sense, the main opposition is a lack of knowledge/awareness. aka "no change is better than some change I don't completely understand". Maine adopted RCV, after five years of having it in Portland, ME, which is 5% of the state's population.
