Ranked Choice Voting won 8 out of 10 ballot measures on November 8.
RCV in single member districts won in Fort Collins CO, Evanston IL, and Multonomah County OR.
Significantly, proportional RCV (RCV in multi-member districts to create proportional representation) won in Ojai CA, Portland ME, and Portland OR.
The move to proportional representation was led by people of color in Ojai CA and Portland OR.
The Ojai CA ballot measure came due to the threat of a voting rights lawsuit by Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, which fights for the voting rights of Mexican-Americans in the Southwest. Both the at-large and district plurality systems Ojai had used resulted in the under-representation of Latinos.
In Portland OR, Black, Latino, Indigenous, and Asian people led the campaign for proportional RCV to replace the at-large plurality system that had resulted in the under-representation of people of color on Portland’s city council.
In Seattle WA, voters had two questions One was whether to change the voting system. The other was whether to change the system to RCV or Approval Voting. On the second question, RCV beat Approval Voting 75% to 25%. On the first question, change inched ahead of status quo on Saturday by a narrow 50.35% majority.
In Nevada, an initiative for RCV in all local, state, and federal elections passed 53% to 47%. The initiative also replaces party primaries with one top-five primary where the top five vote getters proceed to an RCV general election. RCV is good. Top five is bad. Top-five (and top-four in AK and top-two in CA and WA) undermines parties by taking away their right of their own members to nominate their own candidates.
RCV lost in Clark County WA, a purple county, and San Juan County WA, a strong blue county.
We went into the 2020 election with RCV in 24 jurisdictions. By the time we went into 2022 elections, RCV had more than doubled to 2 states, 1 county, and 53 municipalities Coming out of the 2022 elections, it RCV is now in 3 states, 2 counties, and 59 municipalities (and actually a lot more when Nevada’s 17 counties, 19 municipalities, and 20 school districts are included).
RCV is a reform that frees Green Party candidates from the spoiler effect.
Proportional RCV also frees the Green Party from exclusion from representation by gerrymandered districts.
Gerrymandered single-member districts creates mostly non-competitive, one-party legislative districts at the local, state, and federal levels.
RCV is a reform we are winning. Greens should prioritize organizing for it, and especially proportional RCV because that will create an inclusive multi-party electoral system where Greens can get their fair and proportional share of representation in government.
