Who Will Win the Gerrymandering War?
This is the summer of our gerrymandering Armageddon.
This is a beautiful and compelling story about what the People can do. Against all odds, the people in Maine force the politicians to listen. If only “as Maine goes, so goes the Nation”! —Lawrence Lessig
From Maine to New Mexico, citizens across America are clamoring for free and fair elections through Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). Our story unfolds as voters organizing to enact the reform face fierce pushback from establishment politicians. The film looks at the historical rise, fall, and rebirth of RCV in the United States and abroad, and embed viewers in the front line of the battle raging over voters’ rights.
Through a ballot measure in November 2016, the citizens of Maine voted to become the first state in the nation to use Ranked Choice Voting statewide for federal and state elections. One year later, the legislature and governor moved to kill the bill, claiming it was unconstitutional. However, the people have final say through a process called the People’s Veto. Now they have 90 days to collect over sixty thousand signatures in the depth of the Maine winter. Will they succeed?
Enlivened with colorful hand-drawn animation, The Battle for Ranked Choice Voting follows Maine’s story, drops in on cities like Memphis, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Santa Fe that have adopted Ranked Choice Voting, and takes viewers on a whirlwind tour of non-plurality systems dominant throughout the world. Follow this citizen uprising to restore our failing democracy!
Shondra was main editor of Errol Morris' Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, and films by filmmakers Jocelyn Glatzer and Tom Curran.
This is the summer of our gerrymandering Armageddon.
The Board appears to have strategically picked these two groups not only to explain RCV but also to uphold the notion that every vote counts.
The decision means that voters will not have a chance to weigh in on the proposed reform.
Rank MI Vote has launched a statewide petition campaign to put ranked choice voting on Michigan’s 2026 ballot.
The capital city overwhelmingly voted against an effort to repeal the statewide system last election.
Ranked choice voting helped create an entirely different campaign in New York: It put voters back in charge.
The campaign says it has already seen enormous support.
Washington, D.C. council members vote to approve funding for ranked choice voting, a measure that would allow voters to rank candidates on the ballot.
In a crowded primary field, it’s easy to envision the voter torn between two or three choices but strongly opposed to one candidate.
The results also illustrate how multi-winner ranked choice delivers proportional representation.
The ballot proposal would bring the voting method to Michigan elections for major federal and statewide offices.
The high-profile primary shined a bright light on the nation’s ongoing experiment with ranked choice voting.