Over 40,000 signatures submitted for RCV initiative in Washington, DC
Update: On August 2, Initiative 83 was certified to appear on Washington, DC’s November ballot. It joins numerous other ranked choice voting measures across the country this year.
On Monday, Make All Votes Count DC submitted over 40,000 signatures for Initiative 83 – likely the most signatures ever for a Washington, DC ballot initiative. I-83 would bring ranked choice voting to the city’s elections and let independents vote in taxpayer-funded party primaries.
Over the next month, the DC Board of Elections will review and verify the signatures. The campaign has room to spare – in order to make the ballot, initiatives need signatures from 5% of voters citywide (about 22,500 voters), including 5% of registered voters from five of the city’s eight wards.
Lisa D. T. Rice, the proposer of the initiative, remarked that:
Our campaign set out on January 10 to collect 30,000 signatures by July 8. Here we are, it’s July 1, and we have over 40,000 signatures. We’ve blown our goal out of the water – 10,000 more and a week ahead of schedule. These 40,000 signatures came from all eight wards, representing well over 5.6% of registered voters in each ward, and over 7% District wide.
It’s no surprise ranked choice voting has such strong momentum in DC; recent election cycles have shown Washingtonians just how broken single-choice voting is. In 2020, the Washington Post’s editorial board wrote that “if ever an election needed ranked choice voting, it’s this one” – referring to a primary in Ward 2. The Post’s editorial board has since issued several more editorials in support of ranked choice voting.
Last month, a Ward 7 primary with 10 candidates produced a winner with just 24% support. As Rice put it:
Had ranked choice voting been used, the winner would have gotten broad support, and the voters could have had the opportunity to vote their true conscience.
Visit Make All Counts DC if you want to learn more or get involved!
