Denver Deserves Democracy 
Freedom is Voting Your Values
From RCV for Colorado
https://rcvforcolorado.org/   

 People come to Colorado for access to the mountains and the lively culture, but soon learn that state of our democracy is weak. Our elections are well-run, but the ballot itself limits what voters can freely say. Take for instance, Denver’s 17-candidate mayoral race. No voter can really know that they are not wasting their vote. People try to make their vote count by picking from among the top-funded candidates – but those candidates may not best represent the actual will of the voter. 

     In April, most Denver voters voted with their feet – 60% did not vote. It is hard to vote when you know that your vote probably won’t count. Of the people who did turn in their ballots — 56% of them were irrelevant to determining who can become the mayor. 

     Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) frees voters to securely vote their values. You simply rank who you love, who you like, and who you can live with.

     The tally finds the consensus of a majority through an “instant runoff” using the rankings on the ballots. The clerk tallies the first choice votes. If a candidate has a majority, they win. If no candidate has a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated and those are tallied for the voters next choice. The process continues until a candidate has earned the support of a majority.

     American towns have been using RCV since 1915. Colorado towns like Basalt and Telluride have been successfully using Ranked Choice voting (RCV) for over a decade. Voters in those towns say it’s easy (95%), they like it (86%), and they wish it were in more elections (60%). Boulder and Broomfield will use RCV this November!