Shawn Griffiths
The “Yes on 2” campaign to bring ranked choice voting to Massachusetts elections highlighted a new Spectrum News/Ipsos poll Friday that showed an 11-point advantage going into Election Day. Forty-five percent of survey respondents said they supported Ballot Question 2, while 34% opposed it.
Twenty-one percent of voters surveyed were undecided.
“The volunteers of this grassroots campaign have the most important thing a campaign needs in its final days — momentum,” said "Yes on 2" campaign manager Cara McCormick. “Ranked Choice Voting puts more power in the hands of voters. It will help strengthen our democracy at a time we need it the most.”
The “Yes on 2” campaign has built a strong network of cross-partisan support, including a list of co-chairs that include a former Republican governor, Bill Weld, and a former Democratic governor, Deval Patrick. The list also includes:
- Former US Treasury Secretary and Harvard President Emeritus Lawrence H Summers;
- Former Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Murphy Healey;
- James Bryant Conant University at Harvard University Professor Danielle Allen;
- Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter;
- President of the NAACP Boston Branch, Tanisha M Sullivan;
- Bain Capital Co-Chair Steve Pagliuca;
- Panera Bread Founder Ron Shaich;
- A handful of state legislators;
- And more
The ranked choice voting campaign also released a new 30-second TV ad highlighting its many endorsements, and key points on what the alternative voting method has to offer to voters and how it improves the electoral process.
Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, and uses a system of instant and automatic runoffs until a candidate has majority support. The positive impact it has on electoral competition, voter turnout, and reducing negative campaigning is well documented.