Last week, FairVote co-hosted a webinar with Rank The Vote and RepresentWomen to highlight the introduction of the Ranked Choice Voting Act in Congress. The discussion was moderated by Rank The Vote Deputy Director Eileen Reavey. It featured FairVote CEO Meredith Sumpter, RepresentWomen Executive Director Cynthia Richie Terrell, and Congressman Jamie Raskin (MD-02) – a lead sponsor of the bill.

Rep. Raskin introduced the RCV Act on September 12, along with Rep. Don Beyer (VA-08) and five original cosponsors in the House. Senator Peter Welch (VT) simultaneously introduced the bill in the Senate. 

The RCV Act would implement ranked choice voting in all primary, special, and general elections for the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and allow states the option to pair it with open primaries – just as Alaska does in its elections. 

At the start of the webinar, Rep. Raskin explained why he introduced the bill, and why he believes RCV is so important for our democracy:

Democracy is always an unfinished project. It’s a process in motion, and in Democracy in America, [Alexis de] Tocqueville said… that democracy and voting rights are either shrinking and subsiding, or they’re growing and expanding. We’ve been in very much a contractionary retrenchment mode in terms of democracy and voting rights. And we’ve got to get back on the growth track and a central part of that is ranked choice voting, improving our voting system so we can get to real majority rule.

Raskin went on to note that RCV also promotes civility in politics:

As ranked choice voting has been adopted, it has really significantly diminished negative politicking… [It favors] positive coalitional politics instead of divisive negative politics.

Raskin concluded with a call to action, saying:

We need massive popular education around the country about ranked choice voting and the importance of being able to get majority winners everywhere, and to flip all of the incentives around so that positive politicking is a product of electoral design rather than negative politicking. And I think we’re going to see that, and I do think that that will be a very popular feature of our Ranked Choice Voting Act.

In her remarks, Sumpter highlighted the problems of minority rule and lack of competition in congressional elections – problems the RCV Act would help address:

Only 15 percent of [U.S. House] elections are competitive. This means that 85 percent of congressional elections for the House of Representatives are decided in the primaries. And generally, 8 percent of Americans are reliable primary voters. So currently, a fraction of a fraction of the U.S. electorate – those who vote in primaries – are deciding who makes the rules for all of us. [So] it’s no surprise to us at FairVote that 85 percent of Americans don’t think their elected representatives care about their views.

Sumpter also emphasized the incentives RCV creates for better governing:

There is greater incentive for elected leaders to represent the majority of their district or state. So this leads to more problem solving and coalition building. And a focus on getting things done.

Richie Terrell noted that RCV will bolster representation of women and people of color, fostering better policies:  

[Analysis] from leading consulting firms like McKinsey and others really emphasizes how it’s really hard to make good policy when the governing body doesn’t include a lot of different lived experiences…[Women] hold 53 percent of seats in jurisdictions with ranked choice voting. And it’s easy to see how that could really transform Congress, who sits in those seats on Capitol Hill, and how that would, I think, really strengthen our democracy in a lot of ways.

At the end of the webinar, Reavey asked the audience to take action to support the RCV Act:

The best thing you can do here is contact your elected officials [in Congress]… Let them know that this is something that’s really important to you, and you want to see them take action on. This is something that they need to hear from constituents on.

Ask your representatives to support the RCV Act using this link.