Letters to the Editor – vote-no-ranking-ban

If you get a letter to the editor published, please send a link to info@vote-no-ranking-ban.org so we can keep track, and include the link below so everyone can see what newspapers are getting good letters.

One of the best places to find people strongly inclined to vote is the readers of newspapers. Letters to the editor are among the most read parts of local newspapers. Letters are more likely to be published from local people, and if they’re short and on one topic. Most newspapers have word limits for them.

Even if you submit one and it didn’t get published, they’re more likely to publish one if they get several on the same topic than if they don’t. You may have helped someone else’s to get published. Encouraging your friends to submit a letter also will really help.

Most newspapers have a limit on how many letters they’ll publish from each author, and that’s usually one per month.

Below the talking points we have a list of Missouri newspapers with links on how to submit letters. Most of them have online forms they like you to use. You fill in your information and then they give you a block to “type” in your letter, but of course it’s ideal to have your letter well thought through and written beforehand and just copy and paste it in.

Among the Points to Make Against Amendment 7

Anything you find on this website, but also:

This was put on the ballot by the state legislature on the last day of the session.
The wording is tricky, since it puts something unrelated first so that voters don’t catch what the point of the amendment really is.
Ranking is used in over 50 U.S. cities now.
Exit polls show that voters are very satisfied with it.
This amendment is a ban on communities deciding for themselves how they want to vote.
There’s no such thing as a local government that decides to use ranking without consulting the voters. Voters are always asked in an election whether or not they want to use it. Therefore, this isn’t “protecting” any voters; it’s keeping voters from having those elections. People don’t need to decide if they like ranked voting in order to vote against this; they only need to think that communities get to vote on it if they want.
Both major parties would benefit from having ranking because they could then get candidates in their primaries that had the support of the majority of people in those parties. Those are going to be better for them in the general election.
This measure explicitly says that someone who wins the plurality of votes in a party primary – that is, the most votes even if it’s less than a majority – goes on to the general election. This is deliberately saying that someone should win a primary even if the majority is against them. They win because other candidates divide up the majority’s vote.

Points to be Careful About

This is not a partisan issue. Even though it was a partisan split in the Missouri legislature, there are other places in the country where the partisan split is reversed and it’s the Democrats that oppose and Republicans that support. It’s extremely important that we appeal to everyone. You’ll see on our page for Republicans that a strong case can be made to them, as well as to Democrats. Ranking doesn’t favor any particular party by itself. It only favors the candidates that actually have the support of the voters.

This is not a third-party issue. It’s true that third parties benefit by getting more votes as people rank them instead of merely voting for the “lesser evil” more likely to win. Accordingly, third parties are among our major supporters. Nevertheless, both major parties also benefit as the “spoiler” scenario will no longer mess them up and make them lose elections. And, as said above, party primaries will have higher-quality winners.

List of Links

(in alphabetical order by city, town, or county)

Belton North Cass Herald

Submit a Message / Letter to the Editor

California Democrat