Ranked Choice Voting

How to get RCV in Deming and Luna County

1. Our Deming Liberal Ladies Lunch workgroup is planning an "impromptu" RCV presentation at a Deming City Council meeting in a couple of months, ranking home baked cookies, and working on education materials to enlighten those present to see if we can get a simple ordinance passed to enable the city to do RCV.  I had a good conversation with Abraham Sanchez, Las Cruces County Clerk when they voted in RCV, and the mechanics of the process are pretty easy. It's the elected officials we have to work on. Below are the notes from my conversation with him.   https://fairvote.org/resources/electoral-systems/ranked_choice_voting_vs_approval_voting/

Abraham Sanchez meeting notes: 

Abraham Sanchez Bio:
Worked for nine years w/Dona Anna County as a clerk overseeing  elections. He was community organizer w/ NM Café.  (They have a rep in Deming).  He did consulting w/campaigns. Worked for Progress Now NM – on their progressive communications hub and messaging. Now works for the Center for Civic Policy which was created 15yr ago. After Obama election lots of collaboration occurred between 50 organizations in NM.  State Voices Org supports coalitions of non-profit orgs.  They work together on NM Voting Rights Act, Paid family leave. He is now the Inclusive Democracy Projects Director focusing on equity and representation. 

Notes:

RCV started in Santa Fe in 2008 and had issues implementing it until 2018 when they sued, and won, against the City for interference for not establishing the process.  

Mechanics – local city governments can just pass an ordinance.  They may want a work session and / or public outreach.  Countys use Dominion voting machines which are state wide and already set up for RCV. August is the deadline for candidates to register.  City creates a list of names/ballot, county clerk then manages the process and sends it to a 3rd party vendor to set it up on the voting machines. 

Consolidated voting – school board, council mtgs, county, state were all at different times. Bill passed in 2017 (LEA) Local Election Act to consolidate all elections in November; governor vetoed first time but passed it in 2018. County adheres to state election codes; before city used to have autonomy and cities could opt into it.  Deming has opted in.  Elections start at city level and the county administers it.  State election code didn’t include RCV provisions for Local Election Act (LEA).  Later it was amended so that cities could decide to implement RCV w/o State approval.

For any city, they have to opt in to LEA, which stipulates the County administers elections, then City has to approve RCV.  Deming has four city councilmen and a Mayor. Traditional elections work on the premise that convincing the undecided/uncommitted is the key to winning so you get an extreme representation pandering to those not wanting to central Dems or Repubs.

RCV causes more civility in elections as they want to be a 2nd or 3rd choice on the ballot and can’t bash any ones’ primary candidate.  A lot more candidates can run with RCV.  In an election example with 4 candidates, if two lefts and two rights run and nobody gets 50%, and, say, if the candidate with the lowest vote count happens to be right then they are eliminated. Their votes go to the 2nd choice of the eliminated candidates.   It is more likely one of the rights would have inherited the eliminated candidates votes than would a left candidate. To ensure the best outcome it is in the right candidates’ interest to be nice to the other candidates in order to be that number two choice. As well, the election becomes more about issues than partisanship. 

RCV Games in Las Cruces: Met at the “Retro Arcade” and had a mock election to vote on their favorite ‘80s video game.  They noted that similar game genres were ordered together. E.g. Pacman, SuperPacman and Ms. Pacman were ordered together as were shooting games like asteroid, missile command  and centipede. This reflects the tendency of voters to vote with RCV in their preferred clusters. They just have more choice to vote for variations in the cluster.

Major party vs independents. Semi-Open primaries. Can’t get a dem or repub ballot if registered in either party. On election day any minor or independent registered voter can register and ask for any ballot.  Same day voter registration is available.  Registered Dems and Repubs need to re-register 28 days before election; early voting starts 28 days before election.  If registered as independent, or not registered, can change registration the same day as election.  City elections have no primaries.