Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance made the following statement today in response to Massachusetts voters rejecting Question 2, which sought to implement Ranked Choice Voting in Massachusetts.
RCV was handily rejected statewide by a margin of 1,662,168 votes (55%) to 1,367,552 votes (45%).
“Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance would like to especially recognize outstanding volunteers in the effort, including Cheryl Longtin, the Chair of the No Ranked Choice Voting Committee, her friends and neighbors from Westford who helped Cheryl, MassFiscal board members Jennifer Braceras, surrogate speaker Anthony Amore, former FEC Chairman Lee Goodman, Nick Murray of the Maine Policy Institute, former Maine Congressman Bruce Poliquin, the great reporters who covered a complicated issue plus the media columnists who weighed in including Jeff Jacoby, Howie Carr, VB, Jeff Kuhner, the editorial boards at The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Herald, The Eagle Tribune, The Salem News, The Gloucester Daily News, The Newburyport Daily News, and The Springfield Republican, for all endorsing against RCV,” stated Paul Diego Craney, spokesperson for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.
“While out of state billionaires spent over $10 million to try to make Massachusetts a guinea pig for their ranked-choice experiment, according to data from the Office of Campaign and Political Finance the official No Ranked Choice Committee spent less than $10,000 to stop it. That’s less than a cent per vote for the No side, compared to $7.41 per vote on the Yes side. It was a true grassroots effort. We won, but the real winners are the people of Massachusetts,” continued Craney.
“Lastly, we also would like to recognize the bi-partisan group of elected officials and prominent political activists who spoke out publicly against RCV. Jim Lyons, who chairs the Massachusetts Republican Party took an official position against RCV, along with both Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, who spoke out against RCV last week. Both Republicans and Democrats took time out of their busy lives to speak up against RCV. For all these efforts, we are grateful,” concluded Craney.
Last November, MassFiscal offered legislative testimony highlighting some of the concerns with RCV. MassFiscal invited former Chairman of the Federal Election Commissioner Lee Goodman to speak to lawmakers. The Fiscal Alliance Foundation asked Lee to speak to the media about the costs associated with RCV. Over the summer, MassFiscal was pleased to have been asked to write the argument against RCV that appeared in the official Massachusetts voter guidebook detailing our state’s ballot questions. The voter guide was mailed to every voter across the state.
MassFiscal board members and members volunteered many hours over the last few months to make appearances at civic forums, TV interviews, radio shows, and media interviews across the Commonwealth to debate the merits of RCV. They had to video conference into media interviews and civic meetings, including on nights and weekends, to educate the public on the many shortcomings of this flawed voting process. They took time away from their families and jobs to ensure as many residents of Massachusetts as possible were well educated about RCV before they went to vote.