The non-partisan group Reviving Our American Democracy (ROAD) will
host an event at the Montague City Hall Thursday, Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. to
educate the public on ranked-choice voting, a topic that has recently
made news in the state.
The event will include experts on the topic, helping attendees determine for themselves if they would be in favor of the idea.
There
is a statewide petition circulating in hopes of getting a referendum on
the ballot this fall that would amend the Michigan Constitution to
allow for ranked-choice voting. The practice is already used at the
state level in Alaska and Maine, according to the Ranked Choice Voting
Resource Center, and at the city level in large cities such as San
Francisco and New York City. In Michigan, it's also used at the local
level in Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor and Royal Oak to select the mayor and city
council of those municipalities, and in East Lansing to select the city
council.
The Republican-led Michigan House of Representatives
recently passed a bill that would ban ranked-choice voting in the
state, though it's considered unlikely that the Democrat-controlled
state senate will follow suit. However, if the referendum made it to the
ballot and was successful, it would override any legislation that would
ban it.
