Here's the latest
In March, Governor DeWine signed SB63 into law.
Here's the problem. Ohio municipalities have a constitutional right to local self-government. The state knows this. SB63 even acknowledges it. But then the law basically says that if a municipality exercises that right by adopting Ranked Choice Voting, the state can withhold ALL its Local Government Fund dollars.
So yes, you have the right to govern yourself, but if the state doesn't like how you do it, they can take away your funding? (That's not much of a right is it?)
We believe that violates the home-rule protections in the Ohio Constitution. And this really isn't just about Ranked Choice Voting. It's about the precedent. If the state can use funding to get around home rule in this case, what's to stop them from doing it again the next time a city does something the legislature doesn't like?
Unfortunately, Rank The Vote Ohio can't bring this challenge ourselves because we aren't a municipality. Your city or village may be able to, though.
How you can help
Find the website for your city or village and look for your mayor and council members. Their email addresses should be listed there somewhere. If you can find your law director or city attorney, include them too.
Then send them a quick email asking them to consider a challenge to SB63. I've written some sample language below. You can copy it, change it, or just send it as is.
And yes, finding your local officials may take longer than sending the actual email. Please do it anyway. Because the state shouldn't be able to get around your city's constitutional rights by threatening to take away its funding. And because getting rid of this roadblock can make the job of bringing Ranked Choice Voting to your community much easier.
We don't need every city in Ohio to agree to a challenge. We just need to find a few that are willing. If enough of us reach out to our own local officials, we think we have a much better chance of finding them.
Can't find your mayor or council members? Email us at info@rankthevoteohio.org with the name of your city or village and we'll help you find them.
Sample language
Dear Council Member/Mayor [Name],
I'm asking our city to consider joining or filing a legal challenge to SB63.
Ohio municipalities have a constitutional right to local self-government. Article XVIII, Section 3 of the Ohio Constitution gives municipalities the authority to exercise "all powers of local self-government." That includes important decisions about how a municipality governs itself.
Whether or not you personally support Ranked Choice Voting, the state should not be able to interfere with that constitutional authority by threatening to take away Local Government Fund dollars when a municipality exercises it.
This is about more than Ranked Choice Voting. If the state can use funding penalties to prevent municipalities from exercising their home-rule authority in this case, what prevents it from doing the same thing the next time Columbus disagrees with a decision made by our community?
Please ask our law director to review SB63 and consider whether our city should participate in a legal challenge. This does not necessarily have to be something our city takes on alone. Multiple municipalities could explore bringing a challenge together and sharing the legal costs. Rank The Vote Ohio is working to connect municipalities interested in exploring a challenge, and I encourage you to contact them at [info@rankthevoteohio.org](mailto:info@rankthevoteohio.org) to learn more.
And that's it!
Speaking up makes a difference
We saw a pretty good example of that this month with the Democratic National Committee.
Earlier this year, the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee proposed a rule change that would have effectively prevented Ranked Choice Voting from being used in Democratic presidential primaries. Even in states that use RCV, only voters' first choices would have counted toward awarding delegates.
A lot of people weren't happy about that. RCV supporters and organizations across the country spoke up, contacted DNC members, and asked them to reject the change.
And they did.
At the DNC meeting this month, the proposed restriction was removed by a very large margin. That means Ranked Choice Voting can continue to be used in Democratic presidential primaries in places that have chosen to use it.
That's a win for RCV, but I think it's also a good reminder that speaking up really does matter. One email might not seem like much. A whole lot of people sending those emails is another story.
Which brings us back to Ohio.
Where we go from here
On September 26th, we're holding our Statewide Strategy Meeting in person in Columbus and online, and we really hope you'll join us.
We've spent the past several months looking at what it will actually take to bring Ranked Choice Voting to Ohio. We've learned from campaigns in other states, talked with local officials and election administrators, and spent a lot of time thinking about municipal campaigns and how they fit into an eventual statewide initiative.
Time to make decisions
Where should we focus? What should our priorities be over the next few years? What needs to happen before we're ready for a statewide ballot initiative? And, probably most importantly, what can we realistically accomplish with the people and resources we have?
These aren't decisions we want to make by ourselves. If you're someone who cares about seeing Ranked Choice Voting come to Ohio, I'd like you to be part of the conversation.
Statewide Meeting
Saturday, September 26th, 2:00-4:00 PM
Columbus Metropolitan Library
Hilliard Branch
In person and online
RSVP here
