A Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) Measure is a step closer to being on the Massachusetts 2020 Ballot after the Secretary of State’s Office notified Advocates that more than 111,000 Signatures have been Certified for their Proposal.
Voter Choice Massachusetts said in a Friday Release that under its Proposal, Voters will still only Cast One Ballot, but if Three or more Candidates Run for an Office, Voters would be given a Choice to Rank Candidates in the Order they prefer them.
According to the Group, if One Candidate receives a Majority of the First-Choice Votes, that Candidate Wins.
If No Candidate receives a Majority of the First-Choice Votes, the candidate with the Fewest Votes is Eliminated and Voters who Ranked the Eliminated Candidate as their First Choice would have their Vote Count toward the Next Choice on their Ballot.
Voters would be able to Rank as many or as few Candidates as they want, or they could choose just One Candidate.
The Measure would go into effect in State and Federal Elections beginning in 2022.
The Proposal would Not apply to Presidential or Local Municipal Elections.
Emily Fitzmaurice, a Spokeswoman for Voter Choice for Massachusetts, called RCV a “common sense upgrade to the ballot that will strengthen our democracy and re-engage voters at this critical time.”
Since early September 2019, the Group has had more than 1,000 Volunteers spent more than 5,000 hours helping the Campaign, including Collecting Signatures.
“With the help of hundreds of volunteers, we didn’t just meet our goals, we blew passed them – getting over 20,800 more certified signatures needed at this stage in our campaign to give Massachusetts voters more choice and a stronger voice at the ballot box," she said.
The Measure will now be Transmitted to the Clerk of the State’s House of Representatives.
If the State Legislature does Not Act on the matter before early May 2020, Advocates will Start a Second Round of Signature gathering, with Campaign required to Submit at least 13,374 Certified Signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office by July 1st 2020.
If the Campaign takes that Certification step and collect those Signatures, the Measure would be put on the 2020 Ballot.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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