Why did Eastpointe change its elections?In June 2019, the City of Eastpointe announced that it had adopted RCV as part of a settlement agreement with the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. The City Council agreed to change the City’s method of voting in an effort to assure all voters that their choice is given fair and equal consideration.
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Why Ranked Choice Voting?Under Ranked Choice Voting, voters rank the candidates in order of preference. When votes are tabulated, all first-choice votes are tallied, and any candidate who receives the minimum number of votes required to win a seat (sometimes called the “threshold for election”) is elected.
In Eastpointe, because there will be two seats up for election every two years, the threshold for election is 33.3%+1. This amount of votes makes it mathematically impossible for a third candidate to have over one third (33.3% + 1) of the votes. Most importantly, in a Ranked Choice Voting system, a voter’s vote is not “wasted” when they vote for either a popular or lesser known candidate, since a vote can be counted for another candidate a voter has ranked. Ranked Choice Voting has a long history in U.S. elections, and is used to elect officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul (Minnesota), Santa Fe (New Mexico), San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro (California), Cambridge (Massachusetts), and statewide in Maine. |
Eastpointe City Clerk
City of Eastpointe
23200 Gratiot Ave, Eastpointe, MI 48021
Phone: (586) 445-3661, x2203
e-mail: info@eastpointecity.org
City of Eastpointe
23200 Gratiot Ave, Eastpointe, MI 48021
Phone: (586) 445-3661, x2203
e-mail: info@eastpointecity.org