By Leah Dailey
The Libertarian Party of Oakland County (LPOC) had the pleasure of assisting RankMIVote (RMV), with soliciting signatures for their petition to get Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) on the ballot, to be implemented in Royal Oak city and mayoral races going forward.
Spoiler: they gathered enough signatures to propose the change and the 2023 ballot initiative passed- as well as their ballot initiatives in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and East Lansing!
“Ranked choice voting (RCV) — also known as instant runoff voting (IRV) — makes our elections better by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. RCV is straightforward: Voters have the option to rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third and so forth. Ballots that do not help voters’ top choices win count for their next choice. It works in all types of elections and supports more representative outcomes. RCV means better choices, better campaigns, and better representation. That’s why it’s the fastest-growing nonpartisan voting reform in the nation.” (https://fairvote.org/our-reforms/ranked-choice-voting/)
Helping to gather petition-signatures was a great opportunity for LPOC, to represent a partnership with an organization that is actively working on promoting benefits to our voters and at the same time helping our 3rd party candidates. We chose to help RMV at Royal Oak’s Memorial Day Parade on May 29, 2023.
There was a wicked chill in the air as we convened near main street in downtown Royal Oak early that morning. Adorned with RMV T-shirts and our legal-sized clipboards in hand, we were nearly ready to approach the public. We needed to first discuss our plan of action. If you’ve ever had the joy of soliciting petition-signatures you might be familiar with the nervousness that accompanies it. City-wide petitions and their signatures might be better gathered by door knocking in neighborhoods within the city’s limits. A parade does pose some difficulty, as many attendees may not be city residents (and therefore disqualified to sign). We were well aware of the hurdle.
LPOC member, Connor N. had a great opener to offer, “Excuse me, do you think the way we currently conduct elections is a fair representation of the average citizen? What if there was a better way to ensure a true majority of people elect an acceptable candidate? (if so) You might be interested in signing our petition to implement Rank Choice Voting in Royal Oak.”
I was impressed. The only clever thing I could think of was, “Pardon me, do you have a pen?”
With our scripts ready, we paired off and hit the street. Folks were already lining up with their camping chairs and blankets, and little kids with empty bags hoping to fill with candy from our paraders. Royal Oak has around 58,000 residents (according to the 2020 census) and all that was needed was 2,800 resident’s signatures to get RCV on the ballot for 2023. The pressure was light, but I was still feeling the nerves anticipating negative reactions. As my partner and I made our way down the street we were met with quite a few other RMV volunteers, identified by our matching T-shirts. I spied the other volunteer’s clipboard, FULL of signatures, I gave him a thumbs up as we passed. Unfortunately for us, those we asked afterward had either already signed, were not residents of Royal Oak, or didn’t have a pen.
Eventually my partner and I ended up at the end of the parade route without a single signature. At this time I decided to implement Plan B. I went to the gas station across the road and got us a pint of J&B Scotch and a bottle of apple juice to conceal it. If we were going to be failures, at least we’d have a good time doing so. After a couple swigs in the alley, we were ready to hit Main Street again. Our liquid courage did nothing to improve our numbers, but we did find ourselves helpful to an RMV organizer who refilled his clipboard with our empty sheets, and I was happy to oblige him.
After the parade finished we met back up with our affiliate members at Hop Cat Brewery and had a wonderful lunch and even got to play some Corn Hole! It turns out Connor’s script proved fruitful, as he and his partner gathered the most signatures, a few pages full between them.
Though we did not impress nor dominate with our efforts, we did benefit all in all. Beside the meager amount of petition-signatures collected, we certainly benefited in affiliate building, activist training, and we represented Libertarian action in our community.
Am I personally the most helpful volunteer? Maybe not, but I show up. If you think you can do better, please show up with me. I can be reached at VCAffiliates@michiganlp.org, and I hope to see you soon!
*Article was featured in the December 2023 Michigan Libertarian newsletter.
