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WWW.MAINERANKEDCHOICE.VOTE

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Ranked Choice Voting Candidate Training

3 Key Things You’ll Learn Today

Reminder - What is ranked choice voting and how does it work?
How does ranked choice voting impact campaign strategies and tactics?
What are tactics that have worked well with RCV? What tactics have failed?

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What is Ranked Choice Voting?

Exactly what it sounds like…

Rank the candidates in order of preference, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and so on.
Your 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, etc. choices ONLY matter if your 1^st choice gets eliminated!
Your rankings after your 1^st choice will never hurt your favorite candidate, but can help defeat your LEAST favorite candidate

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How Does Ranked Choice Voting Work?

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How Will Ranked Choice Voting Impact Campaigns?

Higher threshold to win
Different campaign strategy incentives.
Winner elected by the broadest support, not split vote dynamics.

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Building and Expanding Your Base: Win Number

Typical Campaign

The Progressive View

Let’s assume 330,000 registered voters

First, determine EXPECTED TURNOUT:

Use the average of 3 or more similar past elections*

Expected Turnout = 40% = 132,000 voters

Other factors to take into account:

Hot (or dead) races above/below you on the ticket
Highly visible/polarizing ballot initiatives
Aggressive voter registration/Absentee Ballot Campaigns
Current events or political climate
New Voter Suppression Laws
Candidate/Issue Identity – race, age, ethnicity, gender etc.

(Slide Timing: 2 minutes)

(Learning Point: Election work alone cannot expand the base, but it can be an excellent catalyst.)

It should be clear by now that we believe that one election does not a movement make. If making the change we want is not just a short-term, but also a longer-term goal, then expanding our base is the key to our strategy.

Elections can be an incredible, action-defining vehicle for the movement. Because elections offer us a focal point around which to organize, educate, mobilize and turn out voters, they are a good means by which to build and expand our base.

But they are also ill-suited for thoughtful, non-polarizing, deep listening to communities. This type of outreach is best done throughout the year and as ongoing outreach work. Put another way: like much of what we have talked about so far, elections are simply tactics to help build a people-centered political movement.

Elections are engaging. They bring people together to fight for power with a common agenda, within a defined area of a community.

Elections are educational. They offer us a chance to teach and to learn new skills, run trainings and empower new leaders for the future.

Elections are empowering. They create avenues for organizations, constituencies and whole communities to wield power as a group.

Elections matter. They create a space in which we bring vital issues of a particular community to the attention of society as a whole.

These characteristics of elections make them great catalysts for expanding the base.

(CLICK)

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Building and Expanding Your Base: Win Number

Expected Turnout: 132,000 voters

Then, find your WIN NUMBER:

132,000 ÷ 2 + 1 vote = 66,001 votes

+ 2 - 4% cushion (e.g. 53%)

= 69,960 Working Win Number

You’re campaign needs to convince at least 69,960 voters to choose you as a 1st choice. Or build a coalition through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices to reach 69,960.

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Building and Expanding Your Base: Types of Bases

Types:

Personal Base

Base Communities

Candidate

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Building and Expanding Your Base: Personal Base

Typical Campaign

The Progressive View

Family
Friends
Co-workers
Neighbors
College connections
Kids’ friends
Local or faith community
Civic organizations

The people closest to you – those you can always count on.

(Slide Timing: 3 minutes)

(Learning Point: Your personal base is made up of the people closest to you that you can always count on – and you probably have more people and connections than you initially think…)

Let’s talk first about your personal base. These are the folks that you can absolutely count on – they are who you will fundraise from – they will be the first to step up to help. They might not even be politically inclined, but they’re going to show up because they care about you.

Identifying this group isn’t always immediately obvious – it’s about assessing your candidate’s personal base as well as your own, as staff and volunteers!

Do you have relationships in groups that our candidate does not? Who can YOU activate and bring into the process?

(Prompt: Let’s brainstorm who makes up your personal base. Think about past campaigns you have been involved with. What groups of people have been in the candidate’s personal base?) Take 3-5 answers from the group, which should hopefully fill out the following list:

Family
Friends
Co-workers
Neighbors
College connections
Kids’ friends
Local or faith community
Civic organizations

(CLICK) to reveal list of examples on slide.

Reiterate importance of thinking creatively about who makes up your personal base.

(CLICK)

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Building and Expanding Your Base:

Base Communities

Typical Campaign

The Progressive View

Groups of people who, due to their geography, party, age, ethnicity, issues, interests, and values, are or could be part of your coalition.

Who is or is not

with us now?

WHY?

(Slide Timing: 2 minutes, 45 seconds)

(Learning Point: You cannot take a base community for granted, and it claims you, not vice versa.)

Now we’re going to talk about base communities. These are groups of people who due to geography, age, ethnicity, issue interests and values could be part of a progressive coalition that will help you win your election.

Who are these folks? (PROMPT GROUP: You are looking for ideas like women’s organizations, enviro groups, parental organizations, senior citizen communities, community boards, tenants associations, geographic neighborhoods, etc.. )

Remember that we need to ask ourselves who is with us now or who is not with us now that could be? And of course, why?

In order to bring people into our base, we actually have to focus on our base communities and work hard for its support. A candidate that wants to represent a broad and diverse group of people can take no one for granted or assume that group or community is with them. They have to earn those votes.

We need to continue to communicate with our base – those who ARE registered to vote and ACTUALLY vote – with us on our issues, as well as those we are trying to bring into the political process for the first time.

We have to have candidates and organizations that are actually in relationship with communities and their leaders – this means showing up not just when someone’s vote is needed, but when there is a need in the community. This means relationship before task.

One more thing to remember: You do not claim a base – the base claims you.

(CLICK)

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The Old Way: “Bases”��

40%

20%

Base Supporters

Opponent’s Base

Undecided

2 Candidates

Base Supporters

Opponent’s Bases

Undecided

3+ Candidates

(Slide Timing: 3 min)

(Learning Point: Partisan elections often box voters into mutually-exclusive categories)

Let’s start our discussion on base-building by taking a look at how traditional, Democrat-vs.-Republican partisan campaigns look at the concept of a “base.”

Often in non-ranked-choice-voting elections, when campaigns think about voters they put them into three categories: those who are with us, those who are against us and those who are right in the middle – the all-important “undecided voters.”

It used to be that in places without ranked-choice voting, you had a primary election and then you had a general election. If you won the Democratic or Republican primary, the people who came out and voted for you in that primary became your “base.”

In those types of elections, campaigns often refer to their base as the group of die-hard partisans who would vote for the candidate their party nominates, regardless of who that person is – the “Yellow Dog Democrats” or Republicans.

(Prompt: “Who here has heard of that term? A Yellow-Dog Democrat? Or Republican?”) Get a show of hands)

(Prompt: “In these types of elections, where do campaigns spend most of their energy and time focusing?” Take an answer from the crowd, which is “swing voters”).

This is because with limited resources any campaign has to decide where to spend our time, people and stuff. Conventional wisdom in politics says that you spend the vast majority of resources on the swing voters.

(Prompt: “What are the problems with focusing the vast majority of your resources on such a small percentage of the electorate?” Take answers from the crowd, which could include things like: it is disempowering, it ignores a large swath of people after the primary election, it uses the base for volunteers and money only—draining resources from the community, it focuses on negative campaigning, etc.)

Note: At Wellstone Action, we would push-back against this philosophy and suggest instead that partisan campaigns should spend their resources thoughtfully, strategically and (over time on) expanding your base by bringing in new voters to the process.)

If you have volunteered or worked on a partisan campaign in the past, you were probably introduced to this philosophy – the idea that there is your base, and there is your opponents base, and that those are mutually exclusive. And you have probably noticed some or all of the problems with this philosophy in the campaigns that you worked on.

(CLICK to show X)

Well, thankfully we get to move on from this way of thinking in Minneapolis and St. Paul local elections. For the rest of the training, we want you to throw that idea out the window, because that is not how things work in ranked-choice voting.

(CLICK)

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The New Way: Ranked Choice Voting

1^st choice voters

2^nd choice voters

3^rd choice voters

Candidate

intensity of support

(Slide Timing: 3 minutes)

(Learning Point: In ranked choice voting, the concept of the partisan “base” goes away; so does the idea of “opponents”)

As you know, in municipal elections in Minneapolis and St. Paul, city council and mayoral candidates run non-partisan campaigns. As a result, the traditional idea of a partisan “base” (of ~35-40% or whatever) cannot be counted on for support in any case.

In addition, voters in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and other cities (and even the State of Maine!) rank their ballot with their 1^st choice, 2^nd choice, and 3rd choice candidates. The whole idea that you as a candidate has a “base” of voters that belongs only to you and does not belong to any other candidate goes away. So does the idea that you have an oppositional base of voters who cannot and will not vote for your candidate. A voter can vote for your as their first choice, and vote for someone you might consider to be “an opponent” in a partisan election as their second choice, and vice versa.

So there really is no such thing as an opponent voter in a ranked-choice voting election.

In ranked-choice voting, it is very difficult to win with the voters of first-choice voters alone. Candidates need to ask for and receive second choice and even sometimes third-choice votes in order to make it to majority support in the instant-runoff election. So this means that you have to think about your base very differently, and it fundamentally changes how campaigns are run.

In ranked-choice voting and for the rest of this training, we want you to think about your base and your levels of support in a series of concentric circles, with your strongest and most active supporters in the center of the bulls eye, then second choice voters further out, and then third choice voters even further out.

Those who support you the strongest – usually first-choice voters, but not always – make-up your base, as well as those folks who will do more than just vote for you, those who will become volunteers, or donate money to your campaign, or both.

(CLICK)

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Conduct a Power Analysis

Typical Campaign

1) How will the ranked choice election go?

Who will be eliminated and in what order?�
What communities could be in my 1st choice coalition?�
What communities could be 2nd choice voters that are in another candidate’s 1st choice base?�

(Slide Timing: 2 minutes)

(Learning Point: Creating a ranked-choice voting basebuilding plan requires thinking about how the instant run-off election will go.)

So let’s talk about how you create a basebuilding and coalition-building plan to win in a ranked-choice voting election. This requires you to think about how the instant run-off election is going to go.

Remember that we talked about how all of the votes are tallied up, and the candidate with the fewest votes gets eliminated, and so on and so forth? Well, in building your plan, you first need to think about your assumptions and presumptions on which candidates (or groups of candidates) are going to be eliminated, and in what order?

Who will be the first to go? Who will be the second? This requires some analysis of viability. Are there simply some protest vote candidates? Who are they? And who is in their group of first-choice voters?

Moreover, ask yourselves which base communities could be in your first-choice coalition? Who do you identify with? What groups have you been involved in? What issues really motivate and drive you to be in engaged in politics, and how have you been successful in brining people together around those issues?

Thinking about the other candidates and their first-choice coalitions, which communities could you approach to ask for second-choice votes? How are you going to go after them?

(CLICK)

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Targeting: Traditional Tools

Geography

Precincts, districts where our base and persuadable voters live
Past election results and/or census data

Demographics

Key constituencies that have shown strong past support (e.g. …..)
Key personal networks (e.g. personal, institutional, issue, cultural)

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Targeting: RCV Tools

Geography

Precincts, districts where likely 2nd or 3rd choice supporters are.

Demographics

Key constituencies where 2nd or 3rd choice endorsements could carry favor.

Issues

Key constituencies that have shown strong support on particular issues.

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Targeting: Identifying Voters

Goal:

Introduce the candidate and identify level of support

Target:

Registered voters who are likely to vote or likely to support us

Preferred Methods:

Phone calls, door knocks

Complementary Outreach:

Direct mail, letters to the editor

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Targeting: Identifying Voters

Persuasion

Direct Conversations
Relevant Content
Repeated Contacts

I.D

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Targeting: Identifying Voters (RCV)

1 = Strong Support

2 = Leaning Support

3 = Undecided

4 = Leaning another candidate

5 = Another candidate’s #1

Volunteer, GOTV

Persuasion/

2^nd3^rd Choice Script or Off the list

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Targeting: Conduct A Power Analysis

To determine how you will use your persuasion scripts or your 2^nd and 3^rd choice scripts, you need to analyze your opponents.
This analysis should compare and contrast stances on issues and support bases.
Determine constituencies that can be added to you base or can be courted for 2^nd and 3^rd choice votes.

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Targeting: Endorsements

Endorsements can strengthen or build your base, bringing existing supporters on board and introducing likely supporters to the candidate.

If an organization endorses you as a 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, etc. that’s great!
If an organization does not endorse you but has only endorsed one other candidate

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Targeting: Coalitions

People who work together will win, whether it be against complex football defenses, or the problems of modern society.

-Vince Lombardi

In primaries, candidates often agree on many issues.
In a ranked choice election a candidate may say that if they can not win another candidate is their 2nd choice.
How could this be beneficial for a campaign?

Let’s not get carried away, but…

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Targeting: Coalitions

In RCV elections, all voters matter, not just the supporters of the winning candidate.
Supporters of losing candidates still are able to state their preference among remaining candidates, meaning they can influence policy and governance.
2^nd choice endorsements from candidates have the same power.

What if a candidate is unlikely to win?

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Messaging: How to Stump

“It was a much more interesting project to figure out how to make a case for myself, and it was also a really great way to extend the conversation. You know “Hi, I’m Betsy and here’s why I’m great…I’m not the first person you think is great, well how about second? Can I be your second choice?”

“Now, asking to be someone’s third choice is exactly like you think it is, the first five or six times. After that you realize, we’re just having a conversation and this person is still on the line.”

Betsy Hodges

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Messaging: Distinguish don’t Disparage

What we are saying

about ourselves

(1^st Choice Ask)

What we are saying about them

(Our 2^nd choice ask)

What they are

saying about us

(Their 2^nd choice ask)

What they are saying about themselves

(Their 1^st Choice Ask)

Them

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Messaging: Sample RCV Field Script

Hi! Is ________ available?
Good to meet you ________. I’m [name] with [the X campaign].
[X] is running for [Governor/congress in the Dem Primary] this year.
Will you be voting in the upcoming Democratic Primary?

If yes

Great!

If no

Thanks

Do you know who you are voting for in this race?

If Yes

If your candidate:

Great! That’s good to hear your support for our candidate. (Mark as 1)
We really need your help. Will you volunteer your time to make sure we move Maine forward?

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Messaging: Sample RCV Field Script

If not your candidate:

I understand. You’ve obviously thought about your decision. So what made you come to that decision? [Listen to answer]
That’s great. You know that [your preferred candidate] and I agree on [X issue/Y value] that you obviously care about. [Candidate talking point]
If you prefer [Y candidate] with your 1st choice, will you rank [our candidate] as your 2nd choice?

If yes:

Fantastic! Thanks so much. (Mark as 2)

If no:

I understand. We hope to get your 3rd choice vote. [Candidate talking point]. Can we count on you to be in your top 3?

If yes, (mark as 4)

Thanks so much, have a great day.

If no, (mark as 5)

Thanks so much, have a great day.

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Messaging: Sample RCV Field Script

If No (they do not know who they’re voting for)

Great, that’s why I’m here.
What do you care about most when deciding on a candidate?
[Listen to what they are interested in]
[Persuasion talking points around this interest]
After hearing that, can we count on you for your first choice?

If yes:

Great! Thanks so much. (mark as 1)
Will you volunteer?

If undecided,

I understand. (Mark as 3)
Here’s some information to take a look at while you make your decision. Have a great day!

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Lessons Learned: Oakland

Libby Schaaf 2014
Strong lead
Large Field
Continued to build as candidates were eliminated.

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Lessons Learned: Oakland

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Lessons Learned: Oakland

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Lessons Learned: Oakland

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Lessons Learned: St. Paul

Melvin Carter 2017
9 Candidate Field
Won with a majority in the 1st round of counting.

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Lessons Learned: St. Paul

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Lessons Learned: Santa Fe

Alan Webber, 2018
Strong lead
Continued to build all the way to over 60%.

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Lessons Learned: Santa Fe

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Lessons Learned: Utah and Virginia

Democrats in Arlington and Fairfax Counties have used RCV in nomination contests for school board and Delegate.
Republicans in Utah have used RCV at nomination conventions and have considered it for all primaries.

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Lessons Learned: Oakland

Jean Quan, 2010
Large Field
3rd Place in 1st Choices
As candidates were eliminated she earned enough votes to pass the leader.

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Lessons Learned: Oakland

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Four Things to Take Back to Your Campaign

Candidates who do not adapt to ranked choice voting risk losing.
You are able to engage a larger universe of voters. In particular, your persuasion universe is expanded.
Always ask for a 2nd or 3rd choice vote. On doors, phones, lit, and the stump.
Coalitions can win elections.

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Thank You!

Good Luck!