your chance to rank vote the name for the campaign committee to oppose MO's bank-ranking amendment

[in...@betterballotkc.org]

Friends --

We announce to some and remind others that the Missouri legislature has placed on this November's ballot a state constitutional amendment to ban ranked choice voting. 

On the one hand, this is awful because it frames the issue negatively and because it could actually win. In which case, ranking is dead in MO for the time being. 

On the other hand, this could be a prime opportunity. If we defeat it by a large margin, the legislature and secretary of state will have less ability to sabotage our local efforts. And may not even try. And we have much more opportunity to have people listen to us about why ranking is important. 

But we can also get the no votes from people who don't yet know what they think of ranking, but think that for heaven's sake citizens should be able to vote on it if they want to. 

We have various ideas and are eager to get more, but here's a start: 

Campaign Committee

The very first thing that has to happen legally is setting up a campaign committee that can then take action and take donations. The steering committee has come up with these proposed full names. 

Let Localities Decide How They Vote

Vote No on Banning Ranking

Vote No on Ranking Ban

Preserve Local Elections

Allow Local Decisions on Elections

You can rank which ones of the above you like at: Commitee Name

Votes are due in by noon on Wednesday, June 12. We can then make the final decision at our meeting that evening and get the paperwork rolling. 

Also, we're in need of a treasurer for this committee - someone familiar with how to file with the Missouri Ethic Commission. Any volunteers? 

Card for This Election 

This is a draft of our first card, which can still be tweaked (especially if any of you have feedback). We'll use it for now because we don't have a ballot title - it will be Amendment #, but we don't know what that # will be, and we're told it may be as late as August 27 before it's set.  So we'll have a new card in the Fall once we have that. 

We'll print these cards up once we have a campaign committee name and a live website dedicated to this state-wide campaign. 

August 6 Election

In Kansas City, I plan to organize this as I have for previous elections. But we'll also need people in the other parts of Missouri, since this is a state-wide ballot measure. This includes university towns that might have student groups that could help. It can also include people in other states near the Missouri border that want to come and help out for the day. 

This will be by far the largest concentration of people who'll vote in the Missouri November election. We'll also leaflet, table, and speak to groups as much as we can, but this one day gives us our best and largest audience. 

If you can volunteer, a little or a lot, please let us know. We get people coming out rather than going in since we're influencing a future vote rather than the one they're doing that day. We'll also need people willing to leaflet on this issue only, not adding in other issues or candidates that might turn off some voters that we need to reach. 

State Fair: August 8-18 

This is in Sedalia, Missouri. Last year they had about 350,000 visitors, and it's our best chance to reach people in small towns and rural areas. We've applied for a booth, and I've reserved a hotel less than a mile away for the full 11 days, to be able to coordinate volunteers to staff the table. 

For most of us this would be quite a trip, so would be a major project. But if anyone is interested in helping, let me know. 

-- Rachel MacNair

Voice and Text: 816-753-2057