Im glad we have a nice room, comfortable chairs. Im the director of the food and political reform and when i welcome you all to a discussion of the possibilities of ring Choice Voting as it approaches and revives our democracy in various ways potentially solving and bone jump different challenges. America was founded in 1999 with the idea of creating a home for new generation of both people and ideas across a wide range of Public Policy questions, i am one of the oldtimers although i was not here 1989 but i knew the founders and some of the creation and forming the political system has been part of the dna for this situation from the very beginning. As my colleague reminded me rank was in the book and they called it one of the ideas they promoted in line, it is part of that. Then i came back to inform the local Reform Program in 2014, our count funding farming ideaso just and getting beyond Steel Solutions and as we have evolved, i think we found that ideas around voting are more broadly at times but i take it on a farmer can track you in new constituencies and to seemed like a viable solution and we see communities turning to the set of ideas. How to strengthen democracy in their communities. We will pull together a panel of people are working growth on the big level and in the field and promoting these ideas and understanding the problems that would solve and will not solve. We approaches things one thing i would say to political reform, no form is a super magical bullet, theres a great essay by nick who runs issue ten that incentive idea that has to Work Together and this could be one of them. Any idea gets retracted to the culture and demographics of the community and i think we want to touch on some of those ideas. We sting a lot more of your time, we just introduce a panelist and start with one question gives going and then we will get all cleared up. So starting from my immediate rise, he is a consultant on electoral coalitions. Next is cofounder directive executor of student republic, he was a candidate for president in 2016 in utah is Loan Interest in these ideas. And to his right christopher the mark the legal counselor of the legal center, another organization around the time of the soon and ive had a lot of connection in there helping a lot of communities. In the my colleague who is a senior fellow in our political Reform Program, is the author of a book coming out in january, called breaking the twoparty doomed, a case of multiparty democracy in america. I need more expansive vision wonders possibly going on here. For those of you in the room and the cspan audience, i want to make sure were talking about his and hers when youre out and. They passed into thousand six by voters and had used in 2009 but none of the reasons had been competitive. So in 2013 there was an open seat for mayor and plenty of Council Races so i came to this work in a Educator Campaign to make sure the first was going to factor into the results. That the voters were aware that this is going to be used for one and how their vote will work. If i was talking to a motor planning on voting, i would say it may be a new term but it sounds like voters are able to rank choices in order of preference. A lot of times using the first choice is a candidate you love, then the candidate you like and then the candidate you can stand. [laughter] we just count first choices like any other election. To make sure we have an accurate view over the voter stance. If no one gets the majority, your electing one seat and want to elect a candidate with the majority, no one has reached the threshold. Literacy selected the candidate as a first choice could have their book go to the second voice. This process continues until one of the candidates reaches the threshold of 50 . That is the basic, different cities when youre able to relax. The counselor mayor, but for the voter, you will rank them in order of choice. When youre talking to people, do you say one thing to be frank that i found if you talk about politics people were provide you with the problems ac very quickly. I have not come across a voter that said everything is great lets not change anything. But i think in different circumstances it could be applied differently. Minneapolis is a situation where we had in august primary that narrowed down to two in the august primary turned out from 15 5 . And this is a large cost to the city to open up the polls and do all this but is not necessarily inaccurate to the voters. You have 50 narrow the field and they are going to put a tower in the city decided to eliminate and have one general election using rank Choice Voting. Its usually having the same conversation when more voters were present. This is a situation where the parties were not instead of to run to go one round. My others are they had adopted but a runoff election. The problem is different just on the different on the general election. One place i heard a lot of discussion and not Much Movement is primary generally and there several examples that weve seen were fierce candidates and you see those votes splitting you can get out to onl this coule a way to work them for party unity. And you can build consensus rather than having a knockdown drag out site before you gonna against the other party. Evan, do you want to take you could talk about how you see it as something that relates to your experience. We are all not to get all philosophical. But i spent over ten years at the Central Intelligence agency and i see a lot of challenges the country faces from a National Security frame. This is one of them. I look at the country and the Political Polarization that we are experiencing, not my own excess meant in the great data that they collected over decades of sure parties moving towards extremes or way from each other and asked towards us. The more the half of the harder it becomes for us to govern ourselves. Were in selfgovernment but failing to govern herself. Think about it the world is so dynamic whether its changes in industry or changes in climate. And so many other things i see a National Security threat if we fear to govern ourselves because our parties are so divided and our adversaries abroad see this and exploit that if politicians exploit the division and then the end result is we cant govern ourselves and that we get even more extreme leaders coming to power to capitalize and exploit us with that lack of effective governance. So we have got to change the incentive and shape the way our leaders lead. So couple of reforms that offer the best opportunity and to play Common Ground so how does that impact policy and the same was true and not to even the most divisive policy thats why im so passionate to see a real weakness that it could gauge the incentives. And to remedy that. The way you see things with that nonpartisan and that responsiveness so one of the things that you see is that maybe between two candidates on the polar opposite in terms of the put political positions that what use the politicians coming back to the center and talking to these ideas that are very popular. So again getting into policy positions and then use the elections with polarized that 15 percent of those people come out and focus on that remainder of the city. When there is a problem there with mobilization. We heard stories about campaigns going doortodoor. By somebody who has the first choice but normally and then to say who is your second choice . That is the way to keep the conversation going. So one of the things we havent discussed the challenges and then you could have a winner that doesnt have the majority. And that is part of the problem to be addressed. It was a bigger ambition. And that large consensus on the panel of that hyper partisanship which demands a high level of compromise and then the way the twoparty system and it is about destroying others for electoral gains. So with that storm cloud of impeachment that covers this town. It is amazing to see what republicans are doing right now to support donald trump despite the extreme revelations. That is a function of the binary hyper partisanship they have to agree because theres no other party to run as. And with that system that created space within the party. And that system is not wasting your vote but its expressing your voice. A lot of republicans and then run for the new party. I have a book coming out in four ranked Choice Voting and in with those winter districts. And those multiparty democracies. In the extreme twoparty system. Than those that make it very hard with winner take all. And those multiparty democracies. More voter choice and more Voter Engagement and that is competitive with the winner take all. And they are not even competitive. Ranked Choice Voting and member districts and voters have a real opportunity though its not a Silver Bullet so that is a multi winter form which is the modest version which fundamentally solves a lot of the problems of the democracy of this moment. So to me the most important reform has a chance of happening over the next five or ten years. That mechanism of ranked Choice Voting of the member districts and that party democracy. And most of those who are potential supporters are democrats or republicans as they start out that may not be the best starting point. Is that a solution people are looking for yes i dont want to trash a colleague and friend. [laughter] the answer is not quite. So the 2016 election for whatever reason whether they are motivated or scared to see a turnout of municipal elections. So we have seen more activity than we have. For a long time these are systems that had always been around. And for that time potential leave but if you talk about redistricting every ten years. If you give people the opportunity to think about it i have seen a largely positive response so to do this work i am mainly educating and i am not advocating as much to say this is a problem that you see in your community. That this is a system that exist that people are welcoming to the conversation. I dont use plurality very often. And that doesnt feel that a radical theoretical. And who is ahead. And that 30 percent of the vote and 1430 innovation it replaces consensus voting those that debate a lot of things in 1787 but there was only one at that time it was kennedy based ever got the most votes wins. Not until the mid 19th century reformers started to innovate to come up with different ideas. Ranked Choice Voting was an early 19th century option. And over the course the systems caught on. [laughter] so lets pull back so what is the potential of the system . With the big that it is possibl possible. It is that enactment of policies and it is as simple as that. So to see those politicians and what voters want and they enacting things. [laughter] you have to realize now. There are politicians with that political strategy trying to divide us. Some are very visible. And then trying to divide us in power. So what used to be this would happen in those deep blue districts where you only had to worry about your primary. But it is beyond that now. No modern republicans in the house for example, i could name names but i dont want to share them in this moment. [laughter] and moderate and still conservatives . Even now they are adopting a divisive approach and then to a unifying campaign. And then you watch the rhetoric now. And in a way to get on board with their message. That is a very alarming fact that should concern us all. And a weaker country where that system fails when we are so divided. But around those values so there needs to be Greater Unity than there is right now. That purposely tries to divide us. So we may lose the america and we could lose what is good about america. And with that vision to open the political process with more competition i want that too but i just want leaders who work to unite us and strengthen our country to help it survive in a modern environment. Yes. [laughter] this political system that we have if my if i make my opponent corrupt then i win. The lesser of two evils logic. And on that research on the internet. It was from a martial arts film. [laughter] then they changed their name to fist of the warrior. [laughter] in a three or four person race obviously they should draw distinctions but you look really bad when you go negative and then you start questioning the patriotism and the loyalty and thats what all politics has become there is a survey out today that shows partisan of each other and now they are more than they were in 2006. Where do they go from here . In the past couple of years weve had some successes. Because it is on the charter reform i since we are shifting to another part of the conversation. So there is talk about how voting could make the tone of the campaigns a little less negative. We are in a democracy with intense debates. And to worry about the tone. And then to concern yourself with that. And talking about that i agree and enough to interrupt. [laughter] so the towing of the caitlin the tone of the campaign does matter because it impacts the way of the leaders rhetoric to impact the way we think about our political rivals. And then it closes us off to listening to the other side and when you stop listening first of all our ideas get weak because of not challenge. And then to get weaker and weaker and then the more committed we are to them. That we started to break apart and then to become vulnerable to misinformation. It is a major challenge that we face in a way to the extent we stop listening and our minds are closed. We be calm vulnerable and that impacts even further our ability to govern ourselves. So that environment is so tough to be idealized. On this discourse for everybody. Everybody participating in listening to each other. Its a lot harder to get through. And then to get through to those politicians. And then to have that effect. I would like to share how we talk to the candidates in these races. And then to provide what we are looking for their. It is more about who you are campaigning against when we shift those incentives you have to talk about policy more than you are prepared to because you are talking about your opponents previous life so whatever your research told you you have an alternative to this bad thing in these conversations with candidates the way we largely view elections now than these other people that are with me and against me and this is who you go after and you scramble for those who may be undecided in the tactics to get people to that stage. s what we tell candidates now. But then you do have to highlight and there is something there for sure to accept or reject and then to say is that of thinking of the diagram that this is my base of support. Maybe they are knocking doors for me. But then you take a step out. How will i build on that base and get more people in for what appeals to them . And maybe shift the incentive un 40 percent of the people even if you win that race and some elected officials do. And those concerns of the constituents of the opposite party. So now look at what a Campaign Looks like. We should be interviewing them adequately. So what are the values we want to see . And then tuesday i need to Pay Attention what is going on here. We had a big discussion and then choking too talking to the voters about this idea is not how they wake up and behave differently it is a change. It is a challenge. You dont want them accidentally. And also it is a culture to prepare both accountable it is very cool to see. We had a candidate in 2013 and this is minnesota so its very nice and then to reinforce that to understand those incentives. The leverage that they have is the power in education we are very accustomed. Obviously money is a big factor. So how does this intersect and work with the change. [laughter] and quite frankly the answer is i dont know. I dont know how many in politics and if new york city of that small contribution. And potentially but may be ranked Choice Voting could help. So to talk a little bit from the idea of catching on. And then to say they are interested in the idea. There is a lot of different places we are talking about this and santa fe new mexico talk about ring Choice Voting but the turnout was pretty low and also having people elected a lot of time and finds a problem that exist. And then to be pushed for more choices. And then to be supported by the majority of the city. And then to do pretty well. And then it was nine out of the last 11 elections were decided by a candidate who didnt have a majority. So that was an interesting place it with that phone list. And for whoever it was. So when you have situations like that and with that political realities so those different instances. And dad is partisan. There is less partisan hype to begin with. And then they take advantage of. And then those municipalities and from what those are working on. And how empowering this is for voters. And for everyone really but in that empowers them and those with the political spectrum. So those conversations for example those moderate members of congress that i am sure would be supportive or i was wrong because they would fare probably well. This is the only way to support and then ranked Choice Voting. Then to be surprised they havent been as supportive because they were elected under the Current System. But when you talk to actual voters and you tell them to not overcomplicate what this is. And then to be express the preference. Its crazy to think about it now is just one person but life isnt like that in any other way. Like where we like to go out to eat or the sports teams or friends. [laughter] our parents and family sometimes. [laughter] or children but its normal thing but we are evolving and its part of being free but then we have to pick this one way just to say what the one pick is and when you talk about it in terms of empowering if they are far on the right or moderate conservatives or people on the left there is an enormous possibility for this change. One of the Public Education exercises and in new mexico. Stick around for the happy hour. So if you are watching at home i d