Ballot initiative to reform DC primaries advances
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Anonymous
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Initiative 83 would bring ranked choice voting to DC and allow independents to vote in primaries.
It appears they have enough signatures to put it on the November ballot. https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/07/01/initiative-83-dc-elections/ |
Anonymous
| This will be a disaster just like it was in NYC. Hopefully it won’t pass. |
Anonymous
| How can it possibly be a "disaster"? It may not fix things but it's certainly not going to make it worse. |
Anonymous
Allowing more people to vote is a disaster? |
Anonymous
They use ranked choice voting in Arlington VA, Takoma MD, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Portland and about 50 other jurisdictions around the country. Seems to be working out pretty well. At least they don't get ridiculous results like we do. This year the winner of the Ward 7 city council primary, who will represent 90,000 people, won with 2,000 votes. |
Anonymous
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They need to just do jungle primaries + run-off elections, similar to California. No one will get over 50% in the primary, so top two face off (regardless of partisan affiliation!) in the November election.
It works really well. Most likely what would happen in DC is you have a very liberal Democrat facing off against a moderate Democrat in the November final election. "Independents" can vote for the lesser of two evils. |
Anonymous
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The DC Dems are spending time to review all the signatures (which is their right, of course), but being so hell-bent on stopping this thing and not, you know, electing Democrats in a very important election year, seems right on the mark.
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Anonymous
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Oh no! What if this leads to the district electing less morally righteous far left politicians who feel tax payers should self-flagellate on crime!
What if taxes don’t rise exponentially!!!! What if dc becomes more business friendly??? Can you imagine? We’ll lose the crime free utopia that is currently in place. |
Anonymous
For the amount of money it costs to run primary and then general elections in DC, doing run-offs would be silly. IRV is the way to go. |
Anonymous
That is not why the DC Dems are opposed. They are captured by the Green Team and Bonds. They know damn well that RCV will reduce the power of their incumbencies, so, in an early attempt to prevent that, they are fighting. The DC Dems already embarrassingly lost a lawsuit on the matter because their dumbass lawyer failed to file the lawsuit in a timely manner. My guess is that when this measure passes, Mendo will attempt to overturn it through Council or slow it down so that it won't be ready for his reelection. When that happens, expect Bowser to slow roll its implementation as if we are the first jurisdiction to ever try it. |
Anonymous
I like you. Bring on open primaries and let the independents vote so some sane people can get in DC government. When Muriel Bowser is the least of the evils, and the council has people like Brianne Nadeau, Charles Allen, Janeese Lewis George and Robert White---we need some moderates. Loved David Catania and Carol Schwartz and Tony Williams. |
Anonymous
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The initiative does not make primaries "open." (Weirdly technical).
However, if you are not registered with any party, you can vote for the public offices in a primary, but not the partisan political offices, i.e., you could vote for Mayor but not Ward 4 Committeewoman of the DC DSC. |
Anonymous
| Sorry, should have not used the acronym - DC DSC = DC Democratic State Committee |
Anonymous
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Back in the day in another jurisdiction, my parents voted in the democratic primary (as "independents") so they could vote for the "least bad democrat".
I don't want non-democrats voting in a democratic primary. Sorry. |
Anonymous
The primaries are funded by taxpayers. Everyone should be allowed to vote in them. They're the only meaningful elections we have here. |