Massachusetts Question 2: Should the Bay State have ranked-choice voting?

People voting this fall have the option to change how Bay Staters do so in the future.

A “yes” vote on Question 2 would implement a ranked-choice, or “instant runoff” voting process for state and congressional elections here.

Under such a system — which has been adopted by the state of Maine, as well as numerous cities nationwide — voters would be able to rank as many candidates as they want in order of preference. Vote talliers first look at all of the first-place votes, and, if someone has a majority, the election stops there and that person wins, as is the case right now.

But if no candidate garnered more than 50%, the bottom vote-getter is eliminated, and all of the ballots that went to them are allocated to the voters’ second-place choices. If still that gets no one above 50%, the process repeats, eliminating one candidate per round until there are only two candidates left, at which point the one with the most votes wins.

Proponents’ main arguments in favor of Question 2 are that ranked-choice voting eliminates the possibility of “spoiler” candidates, encourages more people to run — including more independents and third-party candidates, and makes for winners who more broadly represent the will of the electorate.

“Yes on 2” board chairman Evan Falchuk — a onetime third-party candidate himself for Massachusetts governor — also claims that ranked-choice voting makes for more politically civil races, as candidates who go on the attack could scare off other people’s supporters from tossing them a second-choice vote.

“In a ranked-choice election, you can vote third party, and the vote isn’t wasted,” Falchuk said, adding that he would expect it to create more competitive elections in Massachusetts. “Right now, people win with 20%, 25% of the vote. Maybe that represents what the majority wants, but we don’t know.”

But opponents say these claims simply aren’t true — that there’s no rise in third-party candidates, and that this just sows uncertainty.

“Why would you inject all this confusion for nothing?” said Anthony Amore, a former candidate for secretary of state.

He said that asking people to rank, say, nine people — like they could have in the 4th Congressional Democratic primary this year — is “impractical,” and that it will confuse low-information voters, resulting in more people not casting ballots.

“It’s ranked guess voting,” Amore said, pointing to some cities that have implemented it and then rescinded it. “It’s terrible and it doesn’t work.”

A poll out Friday from Spectrum News/Ipsos has 45% of Massachusetts adults saying they support the idea of ranked-choice voting, with 34% opposed and 21% undecided.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/31CWKRM