Maplewood and South Orange Pass Ranked-Choice Voting Resolutions

MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE – On Monday, September 23rd the South Orange Village Council voted unanimously to support a Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) resolution. This follows a September 3rd unanimous vote by the Maplewood Township Committee in support of a comparable resolution. This unified display of support is a critical first step towards using RCV for local elections as well as for the Board of Education elections for the school district jointly shared by the two towns.

Maplewood and South Orange join a growing list of towns – Hoboken, Jersey City, Red Bank, and Princeton – that have expressed a desire to use RCV for their local and school board elections, and are asking the New Jersey Legislature to pass enabling legislation. The proposed state enabling legislation supported by the towns is The Municipal and School Board Voting Options Act (S1622 / A4042), would empower localities to use RCV, upon approval from voters through a ballot question at the next general election.

Ranked-choice voting is a voting process which allows voters to rank multiple candidates on their ballot in order of preference, and requires that a winning candidate receive support from a majority of voters. If no candidate gets a majority of votes, the one with the lowest number of votes gets disqualified and anyone that voted for that candidate has their vote transferred to their second choice. This continues until someone has a majority vote.  RCV is used across the globe, has been adopted statewide in Maine and Alaska, and is used in New York City and cities across the country. Supporters tout RCV as a way to ensure voters’ opinions are more accurately reflected by election results, as well as to address issues of political polarization, “strategic voting” and the “spoiler effect” that frustrate voters and candidates alike every election cycle. RCV encourages more people to run for office, often results in more minority candidates winning, and eliminates the need for expensive run off elections.

“In defense of better democracy, which includes expanded voter engagement, voter choice, greater representation and inclusion, I’m a proud champion of RCV.“ states Maplewood Township committee member Dean Dafis, who spearheaded the effort to pass the resolution.

“I love this issue. I think it’s so necessary to improve our democracy, and access an opportunity for candidates to be able to run, especially in what is traditionally a two party system. And then when you’re getting down to a municipal level and a school board level, it only improves the outcome of our democracy.” said South Orange Mayor Sheena Collum before the vote.

“SOMA Action is thrilled that the South Orange Village Council passed a resolution tonight expressing support for S.1622 and A.4042 in Trenton that would authorize the use of rank choice voting (RCV) in Municipal and School Board elections. SOMA Action has been advocating for RCV since 2018 and believes that passing a resolution at this juncture, when there is momentum in Trenton, is critical. It indicates to our elected representatives that voters want a more inclusive and modern voting process.” said SOMA Action’s Board & Trustees and delivered by Executive Committee Member At-Large Ritu Pancholy.

“I’ve been having conversations with kids who’ve said that what’s the point and that’s sad for an 18-year-old just right out the gate already saying that the system’s rigged and there’s no point in me participating. So this [RCV] will give them that opportunity to not vote for the lesser of two evils but to vote for the candidates they really want to have there…so I’m 100% in support of this… I’m very much in favor of it.” said Maplewood committee member Jamaine Cripe at a recent town council meeting.

“This is a great show of support to the state that residents and local elected officials want ranked-choice voting as the next step of our ongoing experiment in self governance. Starting at the local level we hope this can increase voter participation, diversify candidates, and decrease toxic partisanship in the officials closest to us on school boards and municipalities.” said South Orange resident and Voter Choice NJ member Zachary Kerns.

“We continue to make strides in the movement to bring ranked-choice voting (RCV) to local elections in New Jersey. Town councils in Maplewood and South Orange, both within Legislative District 28 and sharing a school board, have recently passed resolutions in support of state legislation S1622/A4042, which would permit municipalities to use RCV in local elections.  Their support, alongside that of Hoboken, Jersey City, Red Bank, and Princeton, highlights a growing commitment to RCV, underscores the increasing demand by voters for change and the need for legislators to pass the state-enabling legislation to empower municipalities across the state to permit their voters to decide whether to use RCV” stated Veronica Akaezuwa from Voter Choice NJ.

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Voter Choice NJ (VCNJ) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization focused exclusively on nonpartisan education and advocacy for ranked-choice voting (RCV). VCNJ is a completely volunteer based organization. It runs local campaigns for RCV across the state, and coordinates advocacy on RCV at the state level.