Four Lessons for Winning Transformative Change
Electoral reform isn't easy to win in the United States, but FairVote and its allies have found a way
On May 10, I spoke at a gathering of electoral reformers. Here are my remarks. For those near New York City, please join us at the FairVote Awards today (June 3rd), where I’m being honored along with Rashad Robinson, Eric Liu, and Cynthia Richie Terrell.
When I saw today’s lineup of speakers, the intent was clear: I’m the “old guy” here. Not in age – hey, I’m feeling pretty spry – but because I joined this fight in the 1980’s. That’s Boy George, Wham, and me... I know!
It does give me some credibility to say… yes, it’s true – we are reaching a tipping point.; Americans have long been disenchanted with politics. But now we have a roadmap to change. I’m thrilled how close we are to securing a critical mass of big reform wins.
I’d like to share four lessons from four decades of working for ranked choice voting – or “RCV” – that apply to any big reform push.
Here’s Lesson #1: Have a clear vision of where you want to go, but be realistic about how to get there.
I’ll start with a confession. My North Star goal isn’t RCV alone. It’s the Fair Representation Act in Congress that combines RCV with multimember districts. That allows voters to earn a fairer distribution of power.
It speaks deeply to me as a Quaker. If you know anything about us, it’s that we have a deep commitment to fairness. Everyone has the same power to speak. Every decision is made by consensus. Trust me, it can be tedious. But it’s also profound – everyone is expected to use their voice and listen to others.
Most Americans haven’t felt listened to for a long time. That's a big reason I helped found FairVote in 1992 – then, yes, “Citizens for Proportional Representation - “CPR: Resuscitating Democracy.” I became its director with a skimpy budget and threw myself into what was pretty much 24 - 7 work for decades.
At FairVote I’ve always sought that balance between keeping my eye on big goals and smart ways to move toward them. That approach helped FairVote catalyze modern campaigns for automatic voter registration, a national popular vote for president, and gerrymandering reform.
It’s also why I’ve put so much into ranked choice voting. It’s not as transformative as the Fair Representation Act, but the Quaker in me loves RCV because candidates have reasons to listen to more voters and voters to more candidates. Crucially, RCV solves a puzzle we can all understand – how to have elections work with more than two candidates.
For me, that was personal. I turned 18 in 1980 just in time to vote for president. Jimmy Carter was running against Ronald Reagan and independent John Anderson, a great environmentalist. I’d grown up in National Parks. When my Dad became director of the Park Service’s Appalachian Trail Project, only about a quarter of the Trail was protected. By his retirement in 1988 that share had grown to 90%. Dad taught me to think big – and care about climate change before it was cool.
So John Anderson was my ideal! Yet ... I convinced my college friends – and even my grandmother - not to vote for him because John didn’t stand a chance and it would “waste your vote.” That’s the “Spoiler Problem” solved by an instant runoff with RCV.
So imagine the irony. When I became FairVote’s director, our national chair was none other than John Anderson. I worked with John on an oped on RCV that ran that year in the New York Times.
At FairVote, though, I learned that progress is NOT linear & you must bounce back from setbacks. That’s lesson #2: Be resilient - and refuse to lose.
RCV had made sense in 1992 when Ross Perot cut into George Bush’s base and in 2000 when Ralph Nader spoiled the White House for Al Gore. So why did it take 10 years for our first win?
My Utah friend Stan Lockhart advises that good lobbyists don’t convince you to do what you don’t want to do. Rather, they help shape what you do want to do. At that time RCV faced barriers for winning in states. Most voting machines couldn’t handle it. Incumbents were nervous about unintended consequences. Per Stan, our job was to find where RCV was wanted.
That meant a focus on cities as proof of concept. San Francisco had expensive Christmas-time runoffs. Led by Steven Hill, we convinced its leaders to back an “instant runoff” instead. Voters passed RCV in 2002, and did so in at least one city every year from 2004 to 2010.
I was thrilled. But disruption is never easy. A couple small towns and a county in Washington repealed RCV after some bad luck. A repeal hurts you 10 times more than the boost you get from a win.
But we didn’t give up. We kept showing how RCV did work in practice. We blocked more repeals - just as our movement has ever since and will this year in Alaska.
And we kept looking for targets. In 2010, Maine’s biggest city of Portland passed RCV even as it elected a polarizing candidate for governor with only 37 percent of the vote. Frustrated voters created bumper stickers with “I voted with the 63%.” A state campaign for RCV blossomed, earning national funder support. In 2016, Mainers passed it - our movement’s first state win.
RCV had momentum. In 2018, Maine used RCV, and the Washington Post and New York Times endorsed it. In 2019, New York started a streak of 27 straight city ballot measure wins. In 2020, four Democratic presidential primaries used RCV, and Alaskans backed their transformative Top Four model. In 2021, Virginia Republicans nominated Glenn Youngkin for Governor with RCV, the US House passed pro-RCV legislation, and some 90 colleges used RCV for student elections.
RCV was no longer just for wonks. It was an answer on Jeopardy, a New York Times crossword clue, and the means to pick the Best Picture Oscar.
This progress was only possible because of new allies. That’s Lesson #3: Build your coalition with win-win solutions.
Take Alaska’s Top 4 system FairVote first proposed in 2013. It shows what's possible when working toward a bigger coalition with an open mind. In 2010, California adopted the Top 2 primary. Third parties hated it, and I’d worked to open general elections. You can imagine my spirited conversations with California’s Top 2 advocates like Steve Peace and Dan Howle.
But I listened too. The idea of Top 4 flowed from wanting to work with Steve and Dan, not against them. So let’s open up primaries and general elections. Double the number of advancing candidates from two to four, then use RCV in November to uphold majority rule.
We modeled the idea, pushed it out, and got good responses. Thanks to the leadership of Katherine Gehl and advocacy prowess of the likes of Unite America and Scott Kendall, the rest is history.
Reform work is always better together. For me, that starts with my wife Cynthia Richie Terrell, who’s been the Ginger Rogers of our reform and parenting dance all these years. Her insights led me to focus on electoral reform, and she’s always been my closest confidant. She tolerated many a 7 pm dash to the post office, weekend calls with activists, and the ongoing rollercoaster of wins, setbacks, and budget shortfalls often covered with our credit card. Now she’s built RepresentWomen with an inspiring team that will help us all win.
Which brings us to our thrilling moment - and fourth lesson: Seize the day. I’ve turned FairVote’s reins over to its great new CEO Meredith Sumpter and embraced a broader movement role. We have a once-in-generations opportunity: A clear problem with a proven solution. A coalition guided by a common vision of elections that offer better choices, fairer representation, and incentives to unite us. Together I believe we will make that vision real for every American.