Simon Bazelon photo
Ranked Choice Voting advocates gather at the downtown library on Tuesday night.
Twenty-five citizen activists gathered in the basement of New Haven’s main public library on Elm Street with a single goal in mind: To improve Connecticut’s elections.
The grassroots nonprofit Voter Choice CT arranged the event, which was held held Tuesday night.
The group’s monthly meeting focused on strategic questions of how to bring “Ranked Choice Voting” (RCV) to Connecticut’s elections. (Click here for a previous story detailing the issue and the launch of the campaign.)
A quick explanation: Ranked Choice Voting refers to an electoral system in which voters rank candidates in order of preference on their ballots. If no candidate receives a majority of first preference votes, the candidate with the least first place votes is eliminated. Voters who ranked this lagging candidate first then have their votes transferred to whomever they ranked second, and a second tally is done to see if anyone has achieved a majority. This process continues until one candidate has received more than 50 percent of votes, and is also known as “Instant Runoff Voting” (IRV).
Greg Prentiss explains his strategy for growing the RCV movement.
Proponents of this system argue that RCV removes the “spoiler effect,” allowing voters to vote affirmatively for candidates, rather than picking the “lesser of two evils.” While under current election rules, votes for the Green, Libertarian, or Working Families parties are often “wasted,” IRV would ensure these votes play a role in determining the winner. The system has already been adopted in Maine, as well as in several cities around the country, including San Francisco.
Attendee Lesley Giovanelli explained that “If you go to a restaurant, and they say, ‘We’re out of chicken,’ you’re gonna then say, ‘OK, well, what’s my second choice?’ Ranked Choice Voting lets you do that for candidates.”
Discussion at the meeting centered on plans for growing the RCV movement and on ways to increase support in the state legislature. Group members planned meetings with their state representatives and state senators. They agreed to make phone calls and write letters urging their elected officials, Republicans and Democrats alike, to support Ranked Choice Voting.
Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter (lifting his laptop in the back) with fellow RCV boosters.
The group’s goal is to grow the movement into the hundreds and even thousands of supporters, and to help secure passage this session of a Ranked Choice Voting “study bill” that would examine how RCV would work in Connecticut. Two such bills – H.B. 5820, introduced by Hamden State Rep. Josh Elliott (D) and S.B. 1050, sponsored by State Rep. Michael Winkler and State Rep. David Michel — are currently wending their way through the legislature.
While the project of adding thousands of new members and changing Connecticut’s electoral system may seem daunting, one attendee, Quinnipiac University political scientist Scott McLean, was unfazed.
“How do you eat an elephant?” he asked. “One bite at a time.”