Paul Bass Photo
State Rep. Josh Elliott at WNHH FM.
Josh Elliott wants you to be able to vote for him — and for one of his opponents.
He’s running for the state’s top elections post to help make that possible.
Elliott, a three-term Hamden state representative, is one of a village worth’s of Democrats “exploring” a campaign for the 2022 Democratic nomination for secretary of the state, to succeed retiring incumbent Denise Merrill.
That means they have formed a committee to raise money and have traveled through the state pitching their candidacy, seeking to break out of the pack, but have not yet formed an official, formal campaign for the post. Others include Meriden State Rep. Hilda Santiago, Middletown State Sen. Matt Lesser, New Haven Health Director Maritza Bond, and New Haven Alder Darryl Brackeen.
The secretary of the state oversees elections and voting rolls, as well as the government’s commercial database. The job has grown in importance as disputes over election controversies and voting access have broken out across the country.
Elliott points to his experience as a business owner (Hamden’s Thyme & Season and Shelton’s Common Bond Market natural food stores), a law school grad, and a legislator promoting election-related bills as qualifications for the job.
But more than qualifications, he said during an appearance on WNHH FM’s “Dateline Hamden” program, “I’m running on policy.”
He’s pushing three policies in particular:
• Allowing the state’s 9,000 prison inmates to vote. That would build on a new law, pushed by Elliott and other progressive Democrats, that will now allow the state’s 1,500 parolees to vote. Voting in prison will connect inmates more to society and give them more of a stake, improving their chances for successful re-entry into society, Elliott argued.
• “Vote at home” rules that allow more people to automatically receive ballots and cast them in advance more easily in the weeks before an election.
• Ranked-choice voting. AKA “RCV.”
Two states (Maine and Alaska) and 37 cities in seven states (including New York City) now conduct RCV elections. It allows voters to choose more than one candidate for an office; they rank their picks in order of preference. In the counting process, if no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, the last-place candidate is eliminated in the first round, and their voters’ second choices get their votes for the second round of counting. That continues until a candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote. (Click here to read more about that.)
The argument for RCV: It promotes an alternative to “lesser of two evils” “winner take-it-all” campaigns based on personal attacks rather than issues. Candidates would be more reluctant to attack an opponent whose supporters they may need to attract as second-choice voters. And voters themselves could select longshots candidates they prefer as first choices — and therefore have their views counted in an election — without worrying about helping to elect their least-favored candidate, because their “lesser of evils” vote will still count in subsequent rounds. Opponents of RCV said it’s complicated.
(Read more about the national growth and debate over RCV here.)
Elliott has been among legislators and statewide advocates promoting a study bill for RCV in the legislature. They have been unable to convince most members of the Government Administrative & Elections Committee to make the bill a priority.
“I’m taking the show on the road,” promoting the concept through his secretary of the state campaign, Elliott said.
That fits into a broader strategy of “normalizing and popularizing ideas” over years to gradually build support. Advocates did that to eventually pass signed legislation to end the death penalty. Elliott was among the legislators who successfully did that with laws that legalized recreational use of cannabis and made prisoners’ phone calls free.
“That party bosses” don’t like RCV, Elliott said. But maybe the rest of the state can be brought around.
Click on the video below to watch the full interview with Hamden State Rep. and secretary of the state “explorer” Joshua Elliott on WNHH FM’s “Dateline Hamden” program.