As Maine goes, so goes Memphis?
Last week, voters in Maine approved – for the second time in three years – a new system of voting called ranked-choice or instant runoffs.
Maine will be using instant runoffs voting (IRV) for statewide elections, including those for governor and Congress.
They tried it out last week, using IRV in their Democratic and Republican primaries. The election went off without a hitch, with none of the problems – voter confusion, voiding of ballots, vote-counting problems, etc. – predicted by IRV opponents. It’s a lesson for Memphis. In a 2008 referendum, 71 percent of Memphis voters approved using IRV to elect City Council district members.
Unfortunately, our local election commission slow-walked implementation. But just as we were finally ready to try IRV in the 2019 city elections, incumbents on the City Council put up two more obstacles.
The council voted to add a city charter referendum to this November’s ballot asking voters whether they want to repeal instant runoffs. A second referproblem endum would ask city voters to repeal term limits.
As in Maine, incumbent politicians are forcing voters to approve again something they already approved.
That’s wrong. If voters said that’s what they wanted, that should be the end of the story. It almost appears as if the elected body is saying to the voters, “We know what’s best for you.”
That’s what they tried to do in Maine. Voters there approved IRV in 2016. The state legislature delayed its introduction until 2022.
Last week, the people of Maine overruled the politicians. They voted again, by an even wider margin, to veto the law that delayed IRV.
Memphians should follow Maine’s lead and vote this November to approve IRV for the second time.
IRV saves voters time and taxpayers money by doing away with the need for a second runoff at a later date.
More important, it allows more voters to have a say. In Memphis, typically more than 80 percent of voters in City Council elections are not able to make it back to the polls for the traditional runoff election a month later.
Where IRV has been used in other parts of the country, it has increased civility in campaigns as candidates try to gain second- and third-choice votes.
IRV also reduces the vote-splitting – for example, in districts where too many black candidates run in a majority-black district, splitting the vote and allowing a white candidate to get elected with a plurality of say 35 percent.
IRV has increased the percentage of persons of color elected to office. That includes the first-ever black mayor of St. Paul, Minn., and the first-ever black female mayor of San Francisco – both elected this year in instant runoffs.
IRV also opens the door for firsttime candidates. Voters don’t have to worry about “throwing away their vote” on a long shot. They can list the fresh face as their first choice; if that candidate gets eliminated, the voter’s ballot switches to their second choice.
This is a big part of why incumbent politicians fight IRV. It forces them to work harder to get re-elected.
Memphians should vote “NO” on all referenda in November. Meanwhile, they should call their council representatives and ask them to take the anti-IRV referenda off the ballot.
Tell the City Council to heed what happened this past week up north in the Granite State. Call the City Council this week and say, “Remember the Maine!”
Stephanie Gatewood, a former Memphis City School Board member, is principal of EM! Empower Me!