IRV Eases Military and Overseas Voting
Imagine how difficult it must be for a voter who is temporarily overseas, particularly a member of our armed forces, to vote absentee in a Somerville local election. Between the preliminary and general election is a six week window in which the absentee ballot must be: prepared and mailed by the Elections Commission; transported to its foreign destination; filled out and mailed back by the voter; and transported back to Somerville City Hall by the day of the election. The tight turnaround isn’t a problem only for Somerville, but for all local cities and towns in Massachusetts with preliminary elections.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) of the U.S. Department of Defense recommend ballots be mailed to overseas voters at least 45 days before an election. The six week window the preliminary and general elections — that’s 42 days even before the ballots are printed, assembled, and mailed — puts Somerville in clear violation of the federal recommendation. Plus, the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) that provides for write-in absentee ballots does not apply to local races.
In Somerville, the problem facing overseas voters is more than hypothetical. A short drive by our veterans posts and war memorials tell a history of dedication and sacrifice from our city. For example, see this April article on Military.com entitled "Somerville Marines," which highlights the extensive contributions of Somervillians in the Marine Corps. It’s ironic that those fighting in the name of democratic principles abroad should be so hindered from fulling engaging in the democratic process back home.
Fortunately, the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and North Carolina and the city of Springfield, IL have already solved the problem. These jurisdictions have elections where, if no candidate receives a majority in the initial election, the two top vote-getters compete in a runoff election. Instead of performing a separate mailing of the runoff ballot, they include an IRV ballot in the initial mailing that allows overseas voters to rank their choices in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority, then the ranks are used to determine who the voter would prefer in the runoff. For more information, see IncludeEveryVoter.org.
Mailing IRV ballots to overseas voters is a decent solution, but an even better solution would be to enact IRV for all local elections, eliminating the preliminary election altogether. As we have argued, this would mean far greater convenience for all Somerville voters, not just those overseas.
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