LFC Comments: Thanks to Tom Niewulis of Geauga County for sending us this article from the patriots in Washington State. When we read about “progressive” organizations wanting to ‘improve” the way we vote, we know that they have evil intentions of destroying our free and fair elections. We think we need to get back to the basics in our voting process.
To the best of our knowledge, ranked – choice voting is not being considered in the State of Ohio. However, we must remain vigilant, because evil works in incremental steps.
*****
http://www.researchmom.org/Legislation.html
From the Research Mom website we found this information about Ranked Choice Voting.
Ranked Choice Voting
Changing the way we vote
HB 1156 – Increasing representation and voter participation in local elections
HB 1156 leads to a new way of voting in which the candidate with the most votes could end up losing based on the algorithms of the tabulation machines. The bill claims to be about increasing representation and voter participation but this system has not lived up to its claims according to studies done in Maine.
The progressive funded “FairVote” is backing this bill. FairVote is a nonprofit that believes in direct democracy and promoted the same-day voter registration. Their future plans include universal voter registration and getting rid of the Electoral College. This year their goal is to change the way we vote in local elections. FairVote’s funders include Open Society Foundation, Omidyar Network Fund, Tides Foundation, Soros Fund Charitable Foundation, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund – to name a few.
Pierce County is the only county in our state that practiced Ranked Choice Voting. After 2 years the voters had enough and voted this system out. In 2009 it was removed by a vote of 70.65%. Some reasons for getting rid of RCV are listed below.
1. It was too confusing – 63% of voters surveyed complained.
2. The election costs doubled.
3. Election staff had to work 24 hour shifts to process ballots.
5. The voters had to fill out two ballots – regular voting ballot and the RCV ballot. This increased postage.
6. The algorithm process was not consistent. Some races dropped one name and other races dropped two names.
RCV has NEVER been done in a state where ballots trickle in over a period of up to 21 days. In order to have an accurate result all ballots should be received before counting starts. You cannot expect any results on election night or any other date except “Certification Day” when the total number of voters is known.
How does RCV work?
Under the Ranked Choice Voting System, the candidates are listed three times. You must choose your three favorite choices and rank which one is your choice for the first run, second and third run of the ballots. The computer will determine the candidates with the lowest votes and drop them off on the next round. According to the explanation in the bill report for the 2019 HB 1722, “In this method, after voters’ first-choice votes are tabulated, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, and votes for that candidate are transferred to the next-ranked candidate on those ballots. Votes are retallied, and this process continues until one candidate reaches the threshold necessary to be declared the winner.” Many of us are not comfortable with the current system and have concerns over the reliability of the programming. Ranked Choice Voting is completely dependent on the machines and is more complex to audit.
Many counties have eliminated the tabulation equipment in favor of the Hart or Clear Ballot system of imaging ballots. They will have to purchase new equipment that can handle the complex algorithms.
*****
Categories: Corruption, Uncategorized