Now's the time for action - just one phone call!

[in...@betterballotkc.org]

Friends --

Last week, Rep. Dan Stacy introduced HB 1137 in the Missouri House of Representatives. If passed, the bill would bring Ranked Choice Voting to elections in St. Louis County as a pilot program.

The next step in passing the bill is having the Speaker of the House assign the bill to the Elections Committee.

For those who live in Missouri, please help by calling 573-751-3607 and saying something like:

Hello, my name is ____________________. I'm a Missouri citizen, and I support HB 1137, the Every Vote Counts in Local Elections Act, and would like to see it referred to the Elections Committee.

If you prefer to send an e-mail instead (or in addition), that goes to: 

Rob.V...@house.mo.gov

Please keep it this simple - no need to discuss the bill at length now! We'll do that at the hearings. Right now, we just need a groundswell of support to get it to committee so those hearings can happen. 

If you have friends in Missouri who could be talked into making the phone call also, then please let them know. 

-- Rachel MacNair

for Better Ballot KC

[Rachel MacNair]

Friends --

Larry Bradley, active in Better Ballot KC, has some press coverage from when he went to testify in front of a Nebraska legislature committee: 

Bill would allow Nebraska voters to use ranked-choice voting for some elected offices

I remind everyone of the note below I sent out last Thursday -- if you haven't made your call (or e-mail), please do it soon. The Speaker isn't keen on Ranked Choice Voting, but isn't dead set against it either, so getting a bunch of calls really can make the difference in whether the bill gets assigned to committee. 

-- Rachel MacNair

for Better Ballot KC

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[in...@betterballotkc.org]

Friends --

The Speaker of the House gets around 1,200 bills that representatives have filed, and has assigned about 300 of them to committee so far. HB 1137 isn't yet one of them, and time is getting short. The bill doesn't get anywhere unless it's assigned to the elections committee.

The bill would bring Ranked Choice Voting to elections in St. Louis County as a pilot program. Are you wondering why we in the Kansas City area should care what happens on the other side of the state, or why we should get excited about doing it in one county rather than the whole state? The answer is that the election officials in that county are amendable. One of them even showed up to testify in favor of the RCV legislation in the last hearings on it, so he's a strong supporter. Rep. Dan Stacy has rounded up quite a bit of support from civic groups and other legislators there.

But the entire state's associate of election clerks has passed a resolution against RCV. At both hearings on the topic they've sent people to testify against it. We've been working with them face-to-face at their two conferences last year, but there's still more work to be done. Dan Stacy has gotten their leadership to agree to "call off the dogs" for a bill that only covers St. Louis County; without this opposition, the merits should allow the bill to go through. One of the clerks' major concerns is practical: would RCV work in the machines? Would the machines be able to communicate with each other? Just adding up votes isn't as complicated and can work with a calculator, but with RCV, the machines need to be coordinated.

Once a pilot project proves successful, their fears diminish, and we have a clearer path to getting RCV in all of Missouri without opposition from a group that's powerful in election policy.

For those who live in Missouri, please help by calling 573-751-3607 and saying something like:

Hello, my name is ____________________. I'm a Missouri citizen, and I support HB 1137, the Every Vote Counts in Local Elections Act, and would like to see it referred to the Elections Committee.

If you prefer to send an e-mail instead, that goes to: 

Rob.V...@house.mo.gov

If you have friends in Missouri who could be talked into making the phone call also, then please let them know. 

We'll be having our monthly Zoom meeting this coming Monday, March 8, 7 PM. If you're interested in attending, please hit reply to let us know, and we'll send you the Zoom link.