There will be 40 town halls taking place from Sept. 22, kicking off in Livonia, to Nov. 2 in Brighton.
(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/16/2024) Advocates of ranked-choice voting – where winning candidates are determined through voters ranking them from most to least preferred – are going on a town hall tour to figure out if the public support is there for a constitutional amendment ballot proposal.
One of the individuals involved in this town hall series is Katie Fahey, the founder of Voters Not Politicians. The group was the organizer of the successful 2018 Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) proposal.
"I think we really want any average Michigander who wants to learn about this, and who wants a say in what the final language could be, to really show up to these town halls," Fahey said in a press call this afternoon. "We are hungry to hear what people think, but we are working on a timeline – a tight timeline – to make sure that we could have the best chances at a 2026 ballot initiative."
There will be 40 town halls taking place from Sept. 22, kicking off in Livonia, to Nov. 2 in Brighton.
Through ranked-choice voting – or instant-runoff voting – voters receive a list of candidates, from all political parties, and rank them from most to least preferred. If a candidate is the top choice of at least 50 percent of voters, they will instantly become the winner of that race.
However, if no candidate receives 50 percent of the top-ranked votes, then the candidate with the lowest number of highest-ranked votes will be eliminated, and those voters' second-highest ranked candidate will receive their first-choice votes. The cycle continues until one candidate comes out with 50 percent.
During the November 2023 municipal elections, the majority of voters in Kalamazoo, East Lansing and Royal Oak all approved measures to allow local government elections to be conducted through ranked-choice voting. However, now they must wait for the state to change its statute outlawing the election practice.
Fahey described how ranked-choice voting could be useful during a presidential election, especially after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 9 that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s name cannot be removed from the Nov. 5 ballot, despite Kennedy, the vaccine skeptic and environmental lawyer, suspending his election efforts.
A federal judge has scheduled a Tuesday hearing in relation to Kennedy's motion to have his name removed from the Michigan General Election ballot. However, Fahey illustrated how ranked-choice voting could prevent votes from being "wasted."
"With ranked-choice voting, you actually would be able to say 'Hey, I maybe still liked that person first,' but they would be voting their second and third (choice), so if we knew that he was eliminated, these votes could still be counted and there wouldn't be confusion," Fahey said.
Ron Zimmerman, the executive director of the Rank MI Vote advocacy group, said organizers want a constitutional amendment effort to include a local government's ability to use ranked choice, and it wants federal positions, like Congress, to be determined through ranked-choice.
There's agreement to someday see major statewide races – like attorney general, secretary of state and governor – decided through ranked-choice voting, as well.
"I think the important thing to understand is, if we did a constitutional amendment, it would only require it for major offices. It would really be the responsibility of cities and townships and counties to vote themselves on how they want to implement it to their leading officials," Zimmerman said.
Zimmerman said there are lawyers both within and outside of Michigan who started writing two different options for a constitutional amendment question back in late July.
