David Zuckerman, our speaker on September 4, provided an interesting discussion on Ranked Choice Voting, which was described as a fairer way to choose a victor in a political race and is gaining some momentum as a possible choice in Vermont. In a nutshell, voters pick their top 3 candidates ranked 1, 2 and 3. If no one is elected by a majority, i.e., >50%, the lowest performing candidate is eliminated and their second ranked votes go to the remaining candidates. At that point either a majority candidate wins, or then the next lowest ranked candidate's votes get distributed to other candidates until someone achieves a majority. As of April this year two states (Maine and Alaska), 47 cities and 3 counties use this form of voting — a total of 63 jurisdictions across 24 states.
Zuckerman is a farmer and former lieutenant governor of Vermont who currently hosts a talk radio program airing on WDEV.
To learn more about David's talk show on WDEV, go to: https://wdevradio.com/david-zuckerman
To see and hear the David's talk with our Rotary club, go to: https://youtu.be/G5EXOXP8fgw