Becoming an advocate for voting reform is one of the best things you can do to help fix politics, but it’s not easy. This handbook is the first step towards creating a local organization to change the ballot where you live.

Eligibility

You need to know if your target legislature has the authority to determine it’s own voting methods.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forrest_Dillon#Dillon’s_Rule

States with home rule where Dillon’s Rule does not apply:

Alaska

Iowa

Massachusetts

Montana

Nevada (Home rule legislation passed and took effect July 2015)

New Jersey

Ohio

Oregon

Some cities are “Charter Cities” which means they can create their own municipal laws.

Which voting method?

There are many voting methods to choose from. Pick one and stick to it, and build alliances between organizations. The worst thing you can do for your organization is to be divisive.

The Center for Election Science recommends Approval Voting as one of the simpler forms of voting that’s compatible with most voting software. For more information on approval voting, look into https://approval.vote, or for general comparison, see https://ncase.me/ballot

Organizing the Organization

When you create your organization, you should have a clear strategy on which region you wish to adopt voting reform. Start at City or County level. We recommend against going directly for state-level advocacy as the difficulty is too high for new campaigns.

You’ll want to create a 501©4 social welfare organization to give you access to tax benefits and to establish yourself as a serious organization within your community.

https://www.bolderadvocacy.org/resources/thinking-of-forming-a-501c4

Once you’re organized, reach out to the Center for Election Science and we’ll help support your organization.

Once you’ve established your organization and collected funds, you’ll want to begin the campaign drive.

Campaigning

Create a website. You can probably get some help from people on this forum. You’ll want three key things.

A detailed and informative site about what you’re trying to do in your region. A mailing list where you can collect the information of interested peoples A way to collect donations.

Ballot Initiatives are the go-to method for voting reform.

rangevoting.org Top10BallotInit.pdf 149.11 KB

Existing Voting Reform Organizations

https://reformfargo.org/

Counted Counted We are grassroots activists spanning the political spectrum, brought together by the idea that every vote should count. We advocate for nonpartisan, evidence-based voting reforms, like score voting. Our work is centered in Washington state.

https://equal.vote/

http://www.fairvote.org/toolkit#organize

For now this is only a beginning. Comments will be edited into this first post. Suggestions welcome.