Voters in Amherst will elect 13 residents to serve on the first Town Council next month, two months after a preliminary election narrowed the field to 26 candidates.
But had ranked-choice voting been in place, which is called for in Amherst’s new charter for future elections, voters would have been able to make their final choices clear by putting the candidates in order of preference, reducing the cost and time associated with having both a preliminary and final election.
For advocates of ranked-choice voting, also known as instant runoff voting, having a large field of candidates is a perfect opportunity to use a system that gives voters more say about how they feel about each person running for elective office.
The concept of ranked-choice voting will be on the Nov. 6 ballots as the non-binding Question 5 in the 1st Hampshire District, which includes Northampton, Hatfield, Southampton, Westhampton and Montgomery, and the 3rd Hampshire District, which covers Amherst, Pelham and Granby’s Precinct 1.
The idea of ranked-choice voting is that in a field of many candidates, rather than just being able to vote for one, a voter could choose candidates in order of preference.
“This change, I believe, is one of the best ways for us, as a society and a country, to move away from the brink of partisan polarization, vilification, dehumanization and violence,” says Daniel Gilbert of Easthampton, who successfully collected the 200 voter signatures needed in each legislative district to get the referendum on the ballot.
Gilbert said he began feeling despair about politics in 2017 and was seeking ideas for how he could contribute to getting candidates to act more civilly and responsibly.
The language of Question 5 will be identical on ballots in both districts and reads, “Shall the state representative from this district be instructed to introduce and vote in favor of legislation adopting a system for all state and local primaries and elections in which voters rank candidates in order of preference?”
Democratic nominees Lindsay Sabadosa of Northampton and Mindy Domb of Amherst, both of whom are expected to assume office in January in the 1st and 3rd Hampshire districts , would be the ones responsible for sponsoring the legislation, if the referendum passes.
In an email, Sabadosa said she is supportive of ranked-choice voting, since winner-take-all elections shortchange voters, leading to times when the “lesser of two evils” wins.
“Often less popular candidates win because more popular candidates split the plurality of votes between them,” Sabadosa said.
Gilbert said he is confident ranked-choice voting would give voters more say about their preferred candidates.
“If this vote passes, it will provide the momentum we need to implement ranked-choice voting here in Massachusetts, and if we implement it here, that will provide the momentum other states need to do the same,” Gilbert said. “That’s how real change can actually happen.”
Earlier efforts locally to adopt ranked-choice voting have seen mixed results. While Amherst voters in approving a new town charter directed the Town Council to form a commission that will develop a proposal for how ranked-choice voting will be implemented, Hadley Annual Town Meeting in May opted against a bylaw that would have set the stage for using instant runoff in local elections.
Liz Popolo, the Pioneer Valley Regional Lead for Voter Choice Massachusetts, said even though the ballot question is nonbinding, passage would reaffirm Hampshire County’s commitment to being a leader in electoral reform and improving democracy. She observes that Amherst’s embedding the concept in the new charter puts the town in the lead in prioritizing upgrades to the voting system.
“Given the worrisome studies showing voter participation on the decline, ranked-choice voting finally offers us a meaningful opportunity to reverse that trend, by making sure that voters have substantive and diverse options on our ballots, by dampening the divisive rhetoric that turns so many off from wanting to vote, and by ensuring that, by way of instant runoff, every vote truly counts,” Popolo said.
Gilbert said he did the canvassing for the required 200 certified signatures in each legislative district on his own and with friends and family, mostly at Whole Foods Market in Hadley, but also at the River Valley Cooperative and Stop & Shop, both in Northampton, before the signatures were brought to clerk’s offices for verification.
In the end, he was able to submit enough signatures to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office in Springfield to have the question appear in the 1st and 3rd Hampshrie districts, but didn’t have enough for the 2nd Hampshire District, meaning voters in Easthampton, where he now lives, as well as in Hadley, South Hadley and Precinct 2 in Granby, won’t see this question.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
