Campaign Reaches Milestone to Bring Ranked Choice Voting to MA; Submits Over 136,000 Signatures to MA Town and City Clerks.
For Immediate Release
June 17, 2020
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Boston, Mass. – The campaign to bring Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) to Massachusetts is one step closer to making it onto the November ballot after submitting its final petition signatures to over 300 city and town clerks across the state. The campaign needs 13,374 valid signatures from registered voters in its second round of signature gathering and submitted more than 25,000 before the deadline today. In its first round of collection, the campaign broke a Commonwealth record after 111,268 of its signatures were certified as valid.
“Our campaign, powered by our volunteers and coalition partners, is proud to have submitted a record number of signatures in 2019 and now again in the second round in 2020,” said Brian Bass, Organizing Director for both signature drives. “We are thrilled that Ranked Choice Voting will be included on the 2020 Massachusetts ballot bringing us one giant step closer to giving all voters more choice, more voice and more freedom when we vote.”
“The groundswell of support in the Commonwealth tells us that there is a powerful appetite for reforms that put more power in the hands of regular citizens, and we hope to capture that and build momentum for the cause heading into November. Breaking the record sure feels great, but now the real work begins. In our experience, once voters learn more about RCV they tend to get on board,” Bass added.
“Ranked Choice Voting is simple, fair and easy. On your ballot, you can vote for just one candidate like you always have, or you can rank your first choice, your second choice and your third choice, just like you rank things in order in your everyday life,” said Shauna Hamilton, Deputy Campaign Manager. “If your favorite candidate can’t win, your vote is instantly counted for your second choice so your vote matters more.”
A Supreme Judicial Court Order last month allowed for e-signature collection during this second set of ballot initiative signatures to protect voters and volunteers during the pandemic. Voter Choice for Massachusetts collected the e-signatures through a DocuSign online program since the ruling, working with Secretary of State Bill Galvin and local town clerks.
“This was the first electronic signature drive to get a citizen’s initiative on the ballot in American history,” said Cara Brown McCormick, a senior advisor to the campaign. “Together we gathered signatures at a rate of one every two minutes for 40 days in a row, and were fortunate to be able to do the whole drive while keeping everyone safe.”
Contact: Charlie@sqcomms.com, 617-894-6905
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About Voter Choice for Massachusetts 2020
Made up of thousands of citizens across the state, Voter Choice for Massachusetts is a non-partisan campaign of Democrats, Republicans and independents working together to place a question on the 2020 ballot to bring Ranked Choice Voting to Massachusetts elections starting in 2022.