The lawsuit notes that in elections for at-large seats on the DC city council — where voters can currently choose two candidates — voters in Wards 7 and 8 are less likely to cast a second vote, a phenomenon known as "undervoting."
"Many of those voters report their confusion about selecting more than one candidate for what appears to be the same office," said Wilson in the lawsuit, arguing that implementing ranked-choice voting "would introduce an additional layer of confusion to the electorate."
They aren't saying black people can't figure it out, they're reporting that voters in predominantly black areas haven't. It's not a statement of belief, it's a statement of fact. Now, the solution should be to provide resources to educate them on how the new system works, not to abandon it. That would take effort though, and wouldn't work to maintain the status quo.
This seems like a problem that would be very easily remedied by volunteers working the polls. Regardless of statement of fact, its a disingenuous argument by those citing this excuse.
Is it really feasible, or fair, to relegate this population's education on a new voting system to the good will of volunteers on voting day? I'm gonna go with no.
A change like this should come with a huge education campaign attached. The entire constituency should have an actual opportunity to understand the new system well before voting day. Otherwise, intentionally or not, you are suppressing the vote of under-educated populations.
I think ranked-choice should be ushered in ASAP, but pretending concerns like this are unwarranted or disingenuous comes across as short-sighted to me. The problem is valid, even if it's presented in bad faith (which, frankly, I don't believe it is in bad faith).
All a poll worker has to do is tell the voter to rank his preffered candidates from one to x, I've had more complicated questions than that while voting. You don't have to give people a political science lecture.
Ballots are never so simple, and if you've ever played a part in designing something to be "common-sense" you'll understand there's no such thing at a certain point.
My concern is for those that will not receive the proper information, and for the undue burden on volunteers that already commit a lot of effort. Leaving this to be solved at to moment of voting feels like asking for issues. I think we should be more proactive than that.
Is it really feasible, or fair, to relegate this population’s education on a new voting system to the good will of volunteers on voting day? I’m gonna go with no.
Who else should educate them on the topic? Politicians?
And if there is no one, then that would mean you guys won't be able to move away from the current undemocratic fucked up system. Which is even more stupid.
Volunteers, groups that already expend effort to educate populations on voting, fucking pamphlets. There are plenty of ways to spread information somewhat reliably. I'm not even saying to avoid implementing rank-choice. I think it would be a net benefit, but I also think concerns over education on the new system are valid. Implementing something like this improperly opens the door to the entire concept being poisoned for the rest of the public, and we should be talking about how a lack of knowledge regarding the new system can inadvertently suppress voters.
Fuck off its done else where in the world without issue and maybe we could finally vote for people who value education and individuality so less educated voters could get support, they cherry picked a quote to make a racist statement and keep their power. Fuck off with your racist and corporate apologist attitude, honestly.
I'm not against rank-choice, I prefer it. I'm just not so short-sighted as to miss how dumping such a change on a population without proper education accompanying it can backfire and poison the idea for some time. Nor am I so reactionary as to call a legitimate concern racist, merely because it involves a minority group. I'm not saying this a failure of the population, I'm saying the population has been failed and we need to compensate for this if this is going to be implemented properly.
From the article:
They aren't saying black people can't figure it out, they're reporting that voters in predominantly black areas haven't. It's not a statement of belief, it's a statement of fact. Now, the solution should be to provide resources to educate them on how the new system works, not to abandon it. That would take effort though, and wouldn't work to maintain the status quo.
This seems like a problem that would be very easily remedied by volunteers working the polls. Regardless of statement of fact, its a disingenuous argument by those citing this excuse.
Is it really feasible, or fair, to relegate this population's education on a new voting system to the good will of volunteers on voting day? I'm gonna go with no.
A change like this should come with a huge education campaign attached. The entire constituency should have an actual opportunity to understand the new system well before voting day. Otherwise, intentionally or not, you are suppressing the vote of under-educated populations.
I think ranked-choice should be ushered in ASAP, but pretending concerns like this are unwarranted or disingenuous comes across as short-sighted to me. The problem is valid, even if it's presented in bad faith (which, frankly, I don't believe it is in bad faith).
All a poll worker has to do is tell the voter to rank his preffered candidates from one to x, I've had more complicated questions than that while voting. You don't have to give people a political science lecture.
Ballots are never so simple, and if you've ever played a part in designing something to be "common-sense" you'll understand there's no such thing at a certain point.
My concern is for those that will not receive the proper information, and for the undue burden on volunteers that already commit a lot of effort. Leaving this to be solved at to moment of voting feels like asking for issues. I think we should be more proactive than that.
Who else should educate them on the topic? Politicians?
And if there is no one, then that would mean you guys won't be able to move away from the current undemocratic fucked up system. Which is even more stupid.
Volunteers, groups that already expend effort to educate populations on voting, fucking pamphlets. There are plenty of ways to spread information somewhat reliably. I'm not even saying to avoid implementing rank-choice. I think it would be a net benefit, but I also think concerns over education on the new system are valid. Implementing something like this improperly opens the door to the entire concept being poisoned for the rest of the public, and we should be talking about how a lack of knowledge regarding the new system can inadvertently suppress voters.
Fuck off its done else where in the world without issue and maybe we could finally vote for people who value education and individuality so less educated voters could get support, they cherry picked a quote to make a racist statement and keep their power. Fuck off with your racist and corporate apologist attitude, honestly.
I'm not against rank-choice, I prefer it. I'm just not so short-sighted as to miss how dumping such a change on a population without proper education accompanying it can backfire and poison the idea for some time. Nor am I so reactionary as to call a legitimate concern racist, merely because it involves a minority group. I'm not saying this a failure of the population, I'm saying the population has been failed and we need to compensate for this if this is going to be implemented properly.