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.
