The Easthampton City Council and its mayor are putting ranked-choice voting on the ballot this November for mayor and precinct city councilors.
Currently, a candidate who gets the most votes is declared the winner.
In ranked-choice voting, the candidate with a majority of votes wins. If no candidates break 50 percent in the initial count, then the candidate with the least amount of votes gets eliminated. Those who voted for the candidate with the least amount of votes then have their votes redistributed to their second choice, and so on, until a winner emerges.
I don’t want some fringe group, whether left leaning or right leaning, picking the winner. I want my vote to count as much as the biggest loser’s voters.
I believe ranked choice voting disenfranchises voters. If there was a large right-to-life party, would the Democrats want ranked choice voting? Right now, the fringe groups in Massachusetts all seem to lean far left.
I would prefer a runoff election over rank-choice voting so my vote would count as much as the those who voted for a losing candidate.
Donald Torrey
Easthampton