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RCV/IRV Concurrence at NYS Convention 2023

“LWVUS supports electoral systems at each level of government that encourage participation, are verifiable and auditable and enhance representation for all voters.”  LWVUS Position on Electoral Systems.

Quick Links to content below

WHAT LWV PWM IS DOING

The LWV Port Washington/Manhasset is actively engaged on Electoral Reform issues. We are looking to work with members who share the belief that we must improve the ways we elect our leaders to build a stronger democracy in the 21st century. Voters who don’t feel heard don’t engage. Engaging voters motivates them to do the work that democracy requires.

We established our Electoral Reform Committee in the spring of 2021. This is an issue area with many opportunities to improve our elections and voting; this committee seeks to be an inclusive umbrella for those seeking specific reforms — both those already supported by League positions and those needing studies because no position yet exists. Here are a few highlights of our first year:

Building a base within our own League

    • We educated ourselves on the LWVUS Electoral Systems position, adopted at the 2020 National Convention, by concurrence. We met and interviewed the authors of the US new position, who were instrumental in drafting and advocating for their state positions over the past twenty years LWVUS Electoral Systems position is available here
    • At the request of the LWVPWM Board, we built a comprehensive study guide based on the work of state Leagues from around the country, and we held education and consensus sessions. Our membership adopted the US position by concurrence so our League can support reforms at the local level. Our Study Packet, with links to multiple state studies is available here
    • We sought to organize a network of advocates within local Leagues within NYS to drive towards achieving a NYS position — a state position would allow more effective advocacy at all levels of NYS government and a statewide network would offer a stronger base for advocacy within the League and in local communities.

Building a network across NYS

    • To accelerate the building of a statewide network, we partnered with LWV of the City of New York to present a caucus at the 2021 NYS Convention. It was well received and we built a base for mobilizing NYS League members.

View Caucus video on our YouTube Channel

    • It became clear that education would be a key to our success so we began learning and discussing the alternatives to plurality voting, such as Ranked Choice Voting (RCV)
    • We are exploiting virtual meeting tools to bridge distances and build teams from distant Leagues

Our Goal: 2023 Convention adoption of a NYS position on Electoral Reform.

If achieving a voting system that better represents the preferences of voters and allows voters to vote their consciences (voting FOR the candidates they prefer) rather than voting strategically (to prevent the candidates they like least from winning), excites you, we would love to work with you.

WHERE OTHER LEAGUES SUPPORT RANKED CHOICE VOTING

We are building Electoral Reform in NYS on a strong foundation. State and local Leagues around the country have worked on this for years.

14 other state level Leagues have positions in favor of Electoral Reform, alternatives to plurality voting, and RCV (AZ, CA, CO, CO, FL, MA, ME, MN, NC, OK, OR, PA, SC, VT, WA). Here’s a particularly strong example from Washington State

RCV is now in use in over 50 jurisdictions in the United States. On Election Day in 2021, 31 states and localities used Ranked Choice Voting to choose their leaders

What about in NYC:

LWVNYC adopted a position in favor of Ranked Choice Voting in 2010. Though it took nearly a decade, in 2019 NYC agreed to run its 2021 primary elections using RCV.

With sponsors from NYC and Buffalo, the NYS Assembly and NYS Senate have both drafted bills supporting the implementation of Ranked Choice Voting in New York State, though these bills have yet to make it out of committee.

Our PWM committee actively monitors these bills, will score them according to the US position, with other NYS Local Leagues and NYS non-profit, non-partisan allies, and regularly report to our PWM Board and membership.

RANKED CHOICE VOTING THROUGH A DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION LENS

Voting systems that better represent the preferences of the entire electorate, encouraging “sincere” voting rather than “strategic voting” — that is, that allow voters to cast ballots for their favored candidate rather than against the candidate they least favor — result in more candidates throwing their hats into the ring and a greater diversity of winners.

      • NYC first adopted RCV in 1936 (to challenge the control of Tammany Hall). In 1941, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., became the City’s the first Black member of the city council, which provided him the base to be elected the City’s first Black US Representative — and RCV allowed Genevieve Beavers Earle to be the first woman to win a NYC city council seat. NYC repealed the system in 1945 due to a backlash to so many minorities, women, and third-party candidates winning offices.
      • Two dozen cities reformed their plurality voting system to a RCV-type system in the same period as NYC — and Cincinnati, Hamilton and Toledo elected their first African-American city council members.
      • In 2021, RCV is credited with helping women win 61% of the NYC council seats, double the previous number. The council will also be younger, have more people of color, and more “firsts” of other ethnicities, e.g., the first Muslim woman and the first gay Black woman. RCV is credited with encouraging more candidates to run, engaging voters (to create a spike in turnout), and campaigns that focused much more on policy than ad hominem attacks.

WHAT IS RANKED CHOICE VOTING

FIND OUT MORE

Excellent infomation on Election Reform can be found at FairVote
This is a good educational overview video of the history of RCV and how it work
A couple of addtional alternatives to pluarlity voting – Approval Voting and Star Voting
A LWV ally in non-partisan advocacy for RCV in NYS – Ranked Choice NY. The national parent org is Rank The Vote

ASK US, JOIN US

Whether you have a couple hours a month (or much more), whether you know voting reform is something you care about (or you have doubts but want to learn), or whether there is some other aspect of voting reform you want to educate and advocate for — we’d love to hear from you.  Email Program@LWVofPWM.org and type Electoral Reform in the subject line.

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“LWVUS supports electoral systems at each level of government that encourage participation, are verifiable and auditable and enhance representation for all voters.”  LWVUS Position on Electoral Systems.

LWV of PWM is proposing to achieve a NYS position by concurrence with the NYC position on Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), also known as Instant Runoff Voting (IRV).

 

Click Here to see video of Education Zoom
on February 8th at 7:30pm
and here for slides

Over the past year, advocates for RCV have formed a state-wide committee to

  • Educate local Leagues,
  • Encourage them to concur with New York City’s position on Ranked Choice Voting, and
  • Build momentum to bring this issue to a concurrence vote at the LWVNYS Convention in June 2023

To learn more about the origins of the state-wide committee, read here.

Click on Proposed Concurrence Statement 

The proposed position (the “concurrence statement”)  is a slightly edited version of the NYC position on RCV, as allowed under League rules when a concurrence for one level of jurisdiction, in this case, NYC, will be used by another level, in this case, NYS.

The NYC position is available here

Rationale for adopting this position by concurrence

Most local Leagues use state position in lieu of having their own, and the state position is silent on alternatives to plurality voting (what we use today, except in NYC), Adopting a state position by concurrence will benefit local Leagues who want to support using RCV in local elections. It will also benefit the NYS League to have the position adopted at Convention because it will allow membership to decide without requiring the resources needed for the state League to do a study.

Adopting this position will benefit our Leagues and our communities in all the ways delineated below, and it will particularly benefit socially marginalized groups, under-represented communities, and women to gain elected office, if past experience with RCV proves predictive.

Why support this concurrence

Voting systems that better represent the preferences of the entire electorate, encouraging “sincere” voting rather than “strategic voting” — that is, that allow voters to cast ballots for their favored candidate rather than against the candidate they least favor — result in more candidates throwing their hats into the ring and a greater diversity of winners.

Other benefits include

    • RCV eliminates the need for runoff elections
    • RCV gives you more say in who gets elected. Even if your top choice candidate does not win, you can still help choose who does. Your preferences are reflected in the outcome.
    • RCV arguably promotes more civility and less negative campaigning. Candidates who are not your top choice still need your support as your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th choice, giving them an incentive to appeal to a wider audience.
    • RCV may lead to more diverse and representative elected officials. There is some evidence of this in cities using RCV.

In 2020, the LWVUS adopted by concurrence an Electoral Systems position (available here) that lays out critical principles for assessing electoral systems.  Notably, plurality voting (or first-past-the-post), which is used for most US elections (at federal, state, and local levels) fails many of these. While no voting system satisfies all of them, RCV/IRV offers most benefits and fewest issues.  The principles articulated in the US position are:

    • Encourage voter participation and voter engagement
    • Encourage those with minority opinions to participate, including under-represented communities
    • Are verifiable and auditable
    • Promote access to voting
    • Maximize effective votes/minimize wasted votes
    • Promote sincere voting over strategic voting
    • Implement alternatives to plurality voting
    • Are compatible with acceptable ballot-casting methods, including vote-by-mail

How can your League support this concurrence?

  1. Have your League respond before March 1st to the LWV of NYS Convention Program Recommendations survey— to Question 4 on the form (which reads:  “Does your League wish to propose a new program item for study or concurrence?”).
    Answer with whatever other item(s) your League may wish to propose plus the following sentence OR answer with just this sentence:

We propose adopting a NYS position on Ranked Choice Voting by concurrence with the League of New York City’s position, adjusted to be state-wide.

Note that including this language does not bind your League (or its delegates) to vote to adopt the concurrence.  By answering this way, you will be asking for the issue to be discussed and voted on at the convention.

  1. Ask the NYS RCV Committee for educational materials and/or a presentation to your League prior to March 1st or prior to the convention.  Email RCV4NYS@gmail.com

  2. Hold a concurrence within your League with the NYC RCV position so you can advocate for local elections immediately — if you would like advice on doing this, please email RCV4NYS@gmail.com.   Our Committee has assisted several NYS local Leagues do this.

RCV Study Materials (by LWVofPWM)

To read more about LWVof PWM process of concurring with NYC, please click here.

Pros/Cons of Proposed Concurrence

Available here.  (Still in draft form.  Suggestions welcome)

Learn More

Review information on LWVofPWM website page on Electoral Reform

Go to these websites

Excellent information on Election Reform can be found at FairVote
This is a good educational overview video of the history of RCV and how it work
A couple of addtional alternatives to plurality voting – Approval Voting and Star Voting
A League ally in non-partisan advocacy for RCV in NYS – Ranked Choice NY. The national parent org is Rank The Vote

Watch YouTubes on

LWVofPWM YouTube Channel

FairVote YouTube Channel

ASK US, JOIN US

Whether you have a couple hours a month (or much more), whether you know voting reform is something you care about (or you have doubts but want to learn), or whether there is some other aspect of voting reform you want to educate and advocate for — we’d love to hear from you.  Email RCV4NYS@gmail.com

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