Opinion:  So the State turned down other city and towns' Home Rule Petitions;  does this mean there is no viable path forward for RCV in Salem?  

Maybe not, but it may be in another form.

As of this date, City Councillor, Andy Varela is still moving forward with putting Ranked Choice Voting as a question on the November 2025 ballot simply asking the voters of Salem if they would want it or not.  The proposed language for the ballot question might be amended then must be approved by the City Council before it can become a ballot question.  Andy's proposal for Salem RCV encompasses single seat elections for Mayor and Ward Councillors as well as multi-seat elections for Councillors At Large and the School Committee.  Having a consensus by the voters on RCV would be important for our local representatives to decide whether or not to submit a Home Rule Petition on RCV to the state legislature or perhaps pursue another viable path should one arise.  Boston is continuing to pursue the HRP path through City Council so not everyone is giving up on this process.

Partners in Democracy is taking on the statewide effort of Democracy renovation.  PID is concerned about our state legislature's ineffectiveness in serving its constituents.  Danielle Allen is leading this state wide push.  

Among many voter reforms on their 2024 legislative agenda  they support H.711, An Act providing a local option for ranked choice voting in municipal elections. This bill would allow communities to adopt ranked choice voting, without having to seek approval from the state. By removing barriers so that our towns and cities can more easily enact election rules that work for them, we can expand the right to see and shape our communities for all Massachusetts residents.  

PID's position on RCV elections for the Commonwealth seems to be different from the failed 2020 RCV initiative.   On their website  under 2024 Action Plan, they are seeking community feedback on updating our state  primary process, likely to a Top 5 election system, so people can better make their voices heard. The Top 5 model is similar to Alaska’s new system. Instead of partisan primaries, this model uses a single nonpartisan preliminary election where candidates from all parties, including independents, run on one ballot. Then, the top 5 candidates who get the most votes move on to a general election using an instant runoff with ranked choice voting. 

There are definitely bumps in the road to making Ranked Choice Voting our standard election system.  In fact one might suspect that promoting it is irrelevant should  our current form of Democracy vanish after November.  Indeed, this writer believes that if we already had  RCV in place we might not have the political turmoil we have today.   I am still optimistic that others will recognize its importance  and that we will continue to have a democracy that can be improved.

Claudia Lyons, Ocean Avenue

July 8, 2024

Summary of Salem RCV meeting with Greg Dennis
and Sierra Dearns Presenting April 13 5PM

Written by Liz Bradt

In attendance: Norene Gachinard  LWV, Diane Fawley SDCC, Nancy Anderson SDCC ,Lydia King Solidarity Rising Vice Chair SDCC, Liz Bradt Chiar SDCC LWV member RCV, Schuyler Ward Vice Chair SDCC, Betty ?, Councilor Ward 7 Andy Varela, Lucy Corchado, President Point Neighborhood Association, Judith Reilly President LWV, Claudia Lyons RCV LWV

We had prepared for a bilingual presentation but everyone present could understand English so we did not present in Spanish. Also nobody showed up to register to vote in spite of extensive advertising of the event on Salem Patch, Facebook and leafleting of 190 super voters , and posting of fliers in Ward 1 Precinct 2

Greg Dennis gave us an overview of RCV

Sierra Dearns, who is helping with our Salem RCV campaign shared some stats about Salem, and her plan for a LTE meet up online on April 28.

Councilor Ward 7 Andy Varela said that gears are moving to get an elections commission in city hall. He also said there is an increasing understanding in CIty Council  that a non- binding referendum  in November 2025 asking the citizens of Salem to vote Yes/No on RCV for Salem  would be useful to see where citizens of Salem stand on the issue. He needs advocates to email their City Councilors and At Large Councilors voting to get on the ballot.

In order to achieve an initiative petition in Salem to send a Home Rule petition on RCV to legislature ( which the state legislature prefers and tends to pass more often) 15% of voters would need to sign a petition about (4900 signatures) Even with the signatures our CIty Charter requires that more than ⅓ ( 33.3%) of the registered voters vote in the election. We have had voter turnouts in the 20% range. A huge GOTV push by candidates for office in 2025, SDCC and League of Women's Voters would be necessary. Far more than 33.3% would have to vote to get a majority of votes for RCV. 

Councilors that we should focus on to encourage them to support RCV are Cynthia Jerzylo, Patty Morsillo Ward 3,  Meg Stott Ward 6, John Harvey Ward 4,  and  At Large Ty Hapworth Conrad Prozniewski Here is the link to get their emails to the Salem City Council.

Salem RCV is endorsed by the following local civic organizations: