In the Nov. 3 general election, Massachusetts voters will be asked to consider adopting a ranked choice voting system. "So that seemed incongruous, I think, to people.". WGBH News coverage is a resource provided by member-supported public radio. A summary of Ballot Question 2, known as a “Ranked Choice Voting” law, in the Nov. 3, 2020, Massachusetts election is … Voting requires research, which is time and effort, he said. var currentheadline = document.getElementById("headline").innerText;
In the Nov. 3 general election, Massachusetts voters will be asked to consider adopting a ranked choice voting system. He argued it gives candidates a chance to recalibrate their platforms, and it doesn’t have the potential to confuse voters that ranked choice voting may have. var photocredit = photocredit.toUpperCase();
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Closely related is what’s known as the spoiler effect, in which a similar candidate splits the vote just enough to prevent an otherwise popular candidate from winning the election, creating a victory for a candidate whose platform may be less popular, but whose support was not split. Ambition knows no bounds, nor does corruption in this political thriller. “Going into the voting booth and voting their conscience and their heart is a foreign concept. If ranked-choice voting was adopted nationwide, it would fundamentally change how … objLink.Credit = "''";
In ranked choice voting, voters list candidates in order of preference — a first choice, a second choice backup, and so on. Editor’s Note: This is the second story about ballot questions — some of which are statewide, and others are local — that voters will consider in the Nov. 3 general election. "If people are hearing that it's complicated, especially when they're feeling like life is really complicated, they may say, 'You know, we've been doing it this other way for a long time, it seems to be OK. Why change?'". In acknowledging the defeat, the ballot question's proponents highlighted that the campaign received over 128,000 signatures to get the question on the ballot and had 7,400 volunteers. Voters are conscious of the potential for splitting and spoiling in plurality voting. A phenomenon called the vote-splitting effect — in which similar candidates pull votes from one another, diminishing the voting power of groups that are actually voting in similar ways — is often cited as an inherent flaw in plurality voting, and one of the key problems that ranked choice voting theoretically solves. Ranked choice voting, an alternative system for voting and counting ballots, could be coming to Massachusetts, depending on the results of the Nov. 3 election.
Joe Biden carried the state easily, but the president gained a little bit of ground in Massachusetts' Latinx communities.
“I’ve talked to a number of people, voters locally, who are totally confused with it,” she said. var photocredit = "'Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ' 'Voters check in to vote in June at Ralph C. Mahar Regional School in Orange. That process repeats until a candidate wins a true majority. var sellablestring = "RECORDER STAFF";
Advocates say that, in practice, ranked choice voting is intuitive, even if the underlying rules may be technically complicated. HOLYOKE — An independent investigation has found that the state Democratic Party chair broke party rules against interfering in a contested primary... COLRAIN — A handmade wooden sign on the town common once commemorated veterans who were Colrain residents at the time of their service. Voters check in to vote in June at Ralph C. Mahar Regional School in Orange. objLink.LinkTarget = "_blank";
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"Even amidst a global pandemic, we were able to mobilize a movement to strengthen our democracy in a time when it’s needed most," Yes on 2 Campaign Manager Cara Brown McCormick said in a statement. Supporters argued the sytem would be especially helpful in elections like the crowded Democratic primary for the 4th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Joe Kennedy III. If passed, the new law proposed in ballot Question 2 would establish ranked choice voting as the system for all state elections — including state government offices and Massachusetts’ delegation to Congress — but not for municipal elections or presidential elections. In the Nov. 3 general election, Massachusetts voters will be asked to consider adopting a ranked choice voting system. var sellablestring = "RECORDER STAFF";
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"But ranked-choice voting could very likely threaten the electoral paths for members of the legislature, so it's not likely that we're going to see the change there," he added. var sellablestring = "RECORDER STAFF";
The winner is the candidate with more votes than any other. Voting requires research, which is time and effort, he said. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
If we want more than two choices, we have the wrong system for that.”. So to inject a change such as that into the process of voting really requires some explanation in terms of what folks are hoping to achieve and then how it's going to work — and also the pros and cons of such a change.". The Secretary of State’s Office, which oversees elections, hasn’t given any guidance for election workers yet, she said. "We were attempting to do something historic in Massachusetts and fell short, but the incredible groundswell of support from volunteers and reformers that assembled behind this campaign is reason enough to stay optimistic about the future of our democracy.”. Town Clerk Nancy Blackmer said several residents have asked her about how ranked choice voting would work, but that she hasn’t received guidance from the Secretary of State’s Office to inform her how election workers’ jobs would be changed. In the Nov. 3 general election, Massachusetts voters will be asked to consider adopting a ranked choice voting system. var currentheadline = document.getElementById("headline").innerText;
A phenomenon called the vote-splitting effect — in which similar candidates pull votes from one another, diminishing the voting power of groups that are actually voting in similar ways — is often cited as an inherent flaw in plurality voting, and one of the key problems that ranked choice voting theoretically solves.
Then, all votes for that eliminated candidate go instead to the voters’ next choices. In the Nov. 3 general election, Massachusetts voters will be asked to consider adopting a ranked choice voting system. }, Hawley resident Christine Hicks has her vote cranked into the vintage voting machine outside Hawley Town Hall in June. Nancy Blackmer, the town clerk of Orange, said that several residents have asked her about how ranked choice voting would work. Notably, in plurality voting, whenever there are more than two candidates, the winner does not need the support of a true majority. Critics argue ranked choice voting is more complicated than plurality voting. Instead, after the lowest scoring candidate is eliminated, a second election is held. For the average voter, that’s just another layer of confusion and burden.”. Ranked choice voting, its advocates say, solves those problems. var sellablestring4 = "STAFF FILE PHOTO";
"Ballot questions in presidential election years suffer from a lack of political oxygen," he said. var sellablestring2 = "FOR THE RECORDER";
“You don’t want to confuse people,” he said. Without those forums, he said, those supporting the measure were left to rely on television advertising, "which is not always the best place to get at some of the underlying issues for complicated matters of public policy or electoral policy.". "Most voters don't have any experience with ranked-choice voting," said Political Science Professor Peter Ubertaccio, dean of the Thomas and Donna May School of Arts & Sciences at Stonehill College. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
The pros and cons of both Massachusetts ballot questions November 3 Massachusetts Ballot Question 1: Should carmakers share more repair data? To win, a leading candidate must achieve a true majority — at least 50 percent of the votes. “At the end of the day, you just want to keep the stuff very simple for people. Staff File Photo/PAUL FRANZ
“I’ve talked to a number of people, voters locally, who are totally confused with it,” she said. And they tend to vote accordingly, Dennis said, in a kind of bad-faith strategizing to determine which candidate has the potential to achieve enough votes to win.