It’s a question worth asking, and it’s complicated, Stan Lockhart appears to be the lobbyist, but is he being funded by anyone? Something to consider and look into.
We have to ask ourselves why is this being pushed so hard? Why after a questionable 2020 election, and with the majority of Americans concerned about election fraud, why are we trying to shove Utah into a system ripe with possible rigging and fraud?
Plurality is going to be used as the big reason why, and while we agree our two party system needs a lot of work it isn’t because of ONE VOTE PER VOTER. Even within the two parties and their primaries there are issues that the general elections suffer from. It’s because we have ballot harvesting, machine manipulation, and funding from questionable people and places that give the two parties a massive lead against their opponents. It’s because of things like removing caucuses (Utah must repeal SB54) and things like RCV that do away with primaries that we end up with choices the public doesn’t really love, and ones that are not vetted.
They say RCV makes it fair, does it? Why is removing one voter per vote okay? How does moving votes around make it fair? Ask these questions.
Does this timeline concern anyone?
House Bill 35 allows municipal elections to use ranked choice voting. The pilot runs from 2019 to 2026.
We have gone over why RCV is bad here, but let me ask some very basic questions:
1. Why are we not listening to our election clerks who are waving the big red flag over RCV saying this is not good, this opens up our elections to fraud etc?
2. Why is one vote per voter a bad thing?
3. Do you want your ballot manipulated via a machine or person to move your vote around until a candidate gets 51% of the vote? Are you happy with that outcome? Does that sound fraud proof?
Yesterday- June 16th 2021- the committee overseeing elections met and heard from those in favor of RCV and from our election clerks who are not in favor. Those in favor want this on the ballot by 2022 to shove this statewide. Are you okay with that Utah?
We desperately need Utah to pay attention. It’s not only about education, there are other critical pieces at play here. Your vote is literally how you voice your opinion, it’s how you elect school boards etc, if this is tampered with your voice is being silenced. We need you showing up to these election committee meetings and hearings. We need you writing and calling your elected representatives and demanding RCV be removed and or banned, and that the state of Utah focus on making sure election are honest, transparent, fair and auditable.
Below are some links you should take the time to review:
Watch the committee meeting here– please pay close attention to who is for this. If they are a representative for your area you should be contacting them asap.
Approval Voting– this is another alternate option from RCV- while it’s not as bad as RCV we once again have to ask what is wrong with one person per one vote?
Other pieces of information:
https://web.archive.org/web/20221203053839/https://utahrcv.com/about-utahrcv/ – take a look at who is pushing this in Utah
https://electionscience.org/library/approval-voting-versus-irv/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/12/12/opinion/no-it-threatens-distort-election-outcomes/
https://www.heritage.org/election-integrity/report/ranked-choice-voting-bad-choice
Report: The Failed Experiment of Ranked-Choice Voting