State lawmakers have convened a working group to explore allowing municipalities and political parties to use a ranked-choice voting system for certain elections.
Gov. Ned Lamont earlier this month.
In a ranked-choice system, voters rate their candidates in order of preference. If none of the candidates wins a majority, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Votes for that candidate are redistributed based on the voters鈥� next choices, and so on, until a candidate has earned over 50% of the vote.
Deb Otis, Director of Research at , advocated for ranked-choice voting at the first working group meeting on June 14. FairVote鈥檚 research has indicated that ranked-choice voting increases voter satisfaction.
鈥淸In] a recent exit poll in Utah, voters said they were more likely to vote honestly by a 30 to one margin,鈥� Otis said.
Ranked-choice voting has also been shown to decrease what Otis termed 鈥渟trategic鈥� voting.
鈥淚n our current elections, if you've got two candidates already in the race, [if] a third candidate thinks about running, that third candidate might be demonized as a vote splitter,鈥� Otis said. 鈥淭hey might be told, 鈥業f you run, you'll just take votes away from another similar candidate, and maybe help elect a candidate that does not agree with your platform at all.鈥欌��
Otis said that winners of ranked-choice elections tend to be those with the broadest base of support, sometimes making the 鈥淭op 3鈥� ranking of as many as 70% or more of voters.
鈥淚f more than half of the voters want you in office, that should be the lowest bar,鈥� Otis said. 鈥淭hat should be absolutely mandatory in order to win elected office in a representative democracy like ours. And ranked choice voting gets us there, but our current elections do not.鈥�
Otis said FairVote鈥檚 research has demonstrated that ranked-choice systems are tied to better representation for women and people of color, and that candidates in ranked-choice elections are less likely to resort to personal attacks while campaigning, for fear of losing their chance at a second- or third-place ranking.
黑料吃瓜网 , including Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont, in allowing this kind of voting in certain elections.
The intention of the first meeting was to provide working group members with a basic understanding of ranked-choice voting; subsequent meetings over the next few months will allow lawmakers to delve further into the details.
The working group plans to provide a recommendation to the state General Assembly in November, and a final vote is planned for the 2025 legislative session.
