To the editor:
Our Massachusetts legislators have filed two bills to adopt ranked choice voting (RCV). It may be coming soon, here and around the country. Come join us at Bemis Hall this Sunday, March 10 at 3 p.m. to hear Jim Henderson of Voter Choice Massachusetts and cast your votes in a simulated RCV election.
There are many good reasons to adopt this procedure. Most importantly, it enables a more sophisticated and accurate measure of the will of the people, ensuring that the candidate elected enjoys the support of at least 50 percent of the voters.
If we continue to allow the election of candidates that receive the support of only 40 percent or less of the voters, we are discouraging citizen participation and denying their policy and personal principles. In this time, when there are more candidates presenting more points of view than the traditional two parties can champion, we should encourage a robust, new democratic process.
There are practical reasons as well, since ranked choice voting eliminates the need for runoff elections. What an excellent result, when we can simultaneously better reflect the will of the people and conclude the election on time, without additional expense and distraction from the work we need to do.
The bills filed in our legislature are S.414 and H.719, which would establish RCV in state and federal elections, excluding the presidential election, and S.420 and H.635, which would make it easier for cities and towns to adopt RCV for local elections. Our state representative, Tom Stanley, has supported all of them. Our state senator, Mike Barrett, has supported the state and federal elections bills. You can click on the bill numbers for details, and also take a look at Voter Choice MA’s Take Action page for more information.
We hope to see you Sunday!
Sincerely,
Peter Pease (40 Huckleberry Hill) and Barbara Slayter (7 Trapelo Rd.)
Co-chairs, Lincoln Democratic Town Committee
Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.
Leave a Reply