City Council Offers a Thumbs as much as Ranked Choice Voting

Armed with hand-made indications and slogans, Jersey City citizens-- and several out-of-towners-- contacted city legislators Wednesday to adopt "ranked choice" ballot.

Supporters say it will motivate voter turnout and will save the cost of runoff balloting.

And the City Council obliged, verifying their assistance for the procedure by a 7-0 margin, with Ward C member Richard Boggiano staying away and Ward A member Denise Ridley missing.

Before the new law can take effect, nevertheless, the state legislature will need to pass expenses referred to as S1622/A4042 to license municipalities' usage of RVC (ranked choice voting).

And after that, the city would need to ask voters in a binding referendum "to be held at the very first basic election in November following the enactment of state legislation," whether they wanted to modify the city's charter to accommodate the proposed approach for helping decide elections.

Joel Rothfus echoed the beliefs of many public speakers Wednesday when he reasoned that RCV "will level the playing field and save government money."

RCV will "make sure that (election) winners are accountable to a bulk of the voters," Edward Perkins asserted.

Elena Little reasoned that the proposed voting approach would "lead to greater diversity of candidates" and that, in Jersey City, where, typically, low turnout prevails at runoffs, RCV would "save the cost of a second election."

Admitting to never ever having voted in an election, out of disinterest, 40-year-old Anastasios Zouroudis stated that if ranked choice voting entered into play, he 'd change course since "it finally seems like I'm saying something. I feel (RCV) will bring people like me out to vote."

As explained by the newly-passed city regulation, RCV "is a simple upgrade to the method Jersey City citizens currently vote. RCV enables voters to rank prospects in the order of choice and makes sure that winners of any election have the assistance of-- and are responsible to-- a bulk of voters."

In its simplest "Instant Runoff" form-- in cases of single-winner races such as Jersey City mayoralty-- RCV "is a bulk overflow ... where votes are moved from the lowest-ranked candidate up to greater ranked prospects up until a single person attains (more than) 50% of the votes cast," the ordinance says.


This video from Fairvote.org describes the mechanics of ranked option ballot

In multi-winner races-- Jersey City's at-large City Council members, Jersey City's Board of Education and the city's 2 General Assembly seats in the state legislature-- RCV's "Single Transferrable Vote" system would apply.

All votes in excess of that threshold of any elected candidate are then transferred to the voters' next favored candidate on a proportional basis. Consequently, votes are transferred from the lowest-ranked prospect up to higher-ranked prospects till another candidate accomplishes the threshold number of votes.

Ward E Councilmember James Solomon-- who has been a singing supporter of the change-- said that permitting citizens more say in election results is the next sensible step after getting rid of "celebration line" voting.

A council endorsement of RCV-- following comparable action taken by the Hoboken City Council-- is designed to assist "create momentum" that will, ideally, result in action by the state House and Senate, and after that, to a local referendum.



Ward F Councilmember Frank Gilmore called the council vote "an action in the right direction" due to the fact that, ultimately, "it will conserve (federal government) money and remove a lot of the unfavorable back and forth in elections."

Council approval "highlights our commitment to empowering voters and promoting a more representative democracy," Gilmore included.

Ward D Councilmember Yousef Saleh stated he's "vowed my support" for the shift; At-large member Daniel Rivera declared himself "100% with it;" and At-large member Amy Degise credited her coworkers and the advocacy group Voter Choice NJ "for their good effort in informing the public" on the mechanics of RCV.

Council President Joyce Watterman said people may question why it's taken so long to get the law up for vote. "This ordinance went back and forth-- we had to keep consulting (the city) legal (department).

If state lawmakers were to allow the change in voting guidelines quickly, the earliest Jersey City could expect to see RCV on the ballot would be November 2025, according to Solomon, who said it might then be utilized for the very first time in the mayoralty contest slated for November 2025.

That forecast "is a longshot," Solomon acknowledged, "but eliminating the party line was considered a longshot.".

Sightline Institute, an independent think-tank based in Seattle, has tracked 31 cities in the U.S. now using RCV to choose their elections.

Asked his opinion of RCV, Hudson County Executive Craig Guy stated through a spokesperson that he's "coming up on his first 100 days in workplace and is concentrated on getting things done for the people of Hudson County. That consists of reaching out to homeowners to hear their issues (and) dealing with department heads to make certain Hudson County's government is working for individuals.".

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