A Special Thanks to Three Decades of Partners and What’s Ahead
In the three decades since FairVote’s founding conference in Cincinnati in 1992, there has been remarkable progress in our drive for better elections. We’ve catalyzed major structural reform changes and conversations, from automatic voter registration to Electoral College reform and the winner-take-all roots of lack of competition in elections.
I’m thrilled with how far we’ve come in driving advocacy for fairer, better electron methods, starting with ranked choice voting (RCV). From ruby red Utah to deep blue Massachusetts, millions of Americans now use RCV, it’s on a record-number of ballots, and bills to expand RCV are making progress in states and Congress
These advances are only possible due to the hard work of hundreds of people, pouring in countless hours of leadership at other organizations and action by volunteers on the ground. Whether they are new to the movement or have been here from the start, we are grateful for their support.
My wife Cynthia Terrell served 28 years on the FairVote board and is making great progress with RepresentWomen. and New Yorker essayist Hendrik Hertzberg and former Libertarian Party chair Bill Redpath also served a quarter century as board members. They overlapped with a remarkable series of board chairs – 1980 indepndent presidential candidate and Republican congressional leader John Anderson who humbly took the Metro to every meeting, musician Krist Novoselic speaking on our behalf in ever region of the nation with his wife Darbury by his side, author Matthew Cossolotto and voting rights attorney Ed Still who steered our early years, and our tireless current chair Alice Underwood who always makes time for us despite an intense day job as a leading actuary.
We’ve had 57 Board members in all, collectively putting in tens of thousands of volunteer hours into our governance. It’s a treat to reflect on what they brought to FairVote – like Dolores Huerta leading a “Si Se Puede!” chant at our 1993 conference, Rashad Robinson speaking movingly in honor of Lani Guinier, and Rep. Jamie Raskin ensuring we kept reaching for the stars.
The literally hundreds of interns and young staff at FairVote include Congressman Eric Swalwell and state legislators David Moon, Chris Pearson and Diane Russell – and stalwarts now at the RCV Resource Center, Brennan Center, Democracy Rising, Represent.Us and RepresentWomen.
The number of local volunteers is even greater and truly there are too many to name. But as RCV started its remarkable run of wins in cities, volunteers were essential linchpins of every success. Some of them grew their efforts into enduring organizations, most impactful Jeanne Massey with FairVote Minnesota.
Even in our darkest moments, when progress for reform stagnated and faced repeal efforts, the resilience and dedication of our allies allowed us to keep going. No better example of this is the leadership Cara McCormik and the late Peter Ackerman showed in restoring RCV in Maine with a 2018 referendum after the legislature tried to kill the first statewide breakthrough.
A growing network of state and local RCV groups has expanded the movement’s capacity to new heights. There are active RCV organizations in 40 states and Washington, DC. Whether it’s Utah RCV building relationships with state and local officials, Democracy Maine championing RCV statewide and in cities, or Common Cause New York educating voters ahead of RCV elections, these groups make all the difference. Through their efforts, bills advancing RCV have become law in six states this year alone, and RCV measures have made it on the ballot in at least 9 jurisdictions.
Members of Congress, Governors, and state legislators have put RCV on the agenda in legislatures across the country. In 2021-2022, the U.S. House has three times passed legislation with a range of explicitly pro-RCV legislation and bills have been introduced in the great majority of states. This is an issue that can draw support from across the spectrum. In 2017, there were 12 pro-RCV bills in 11 states with Republican sponsors or co-sponsors and 20 bills in 13 states with Democratic sponsors or co-sponsors.
Utah embodies persistence and commitment. In 2017 Marc Roberts was seen as among the legislature’s most conservative members, and Rebecca Chavez-Houck the most liberal. Since August 2017, it’s a rare Friday where both of them haven’t joined a planning phone call with the Utah RCV activists who helped win a string of legislative victories and support from leaders in 23 cities to use RCV in 2021.
We couldn’t have accomplished our work from the last 3 decades without the generous support of our donors. Some donors have been with us literally since the beginning. As an embodiment of our thousands of loyal repeat donors, Becky Liebman was a wonderful housemate as Cynthia and I first planned FairVote before becoming one of our most generous donors (when not leading a women’s trombone band).
More recently, a special acknowledgment to the Hewlett Foundation, which gave us our first scaled, multi-year donation in 2014, and Arnold Ventures, which has shown absolutely remarkable commitment to making dreams for RCV advocacy become real. But from Unite America to Democracy Fund to the appropriately named Why Not Foundation, we have many more to thank.
We now enter a fourth decade, one where we seek nothing less than normalizing voting as ranking in the United States, the Fair Representation Act becoming law, and our nation reaffirming unshakeable commitment to fully participatory, representative democracy. This won’t happen without partners – from national organizations to local volunteers and donors. If you’re new to the cause or would like to get involved, please consider a donation or sign up with one of the advocacy groups near you.
FairVote’s history is proof – democracy works best when we all work together.
