Ranked Choice Voting In NJ

In this episode of Wine, Women, and Revolution, Heather interviews Micah Rasmussen from Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Ryder University about the Zwicker bill to institute Ranked Choice Voting here in NJ. They discuss the pros and cons that may come with ranked choice, as well as other possible voting systems besides ranked choice and first past the post. They discuss how this system could encourage or discourage marginalized voters and marginalized candidates. There are over 20 cities that have passed ranked choice voting as well as the state of Maine. They are leading this experiment in democracy that has to be better than the failing system we have. (Transcript Auto Generated) Micah Rasmussen 0:00runoff elections are notorious for screening out minority candidates who do well. This is Wine Women and Revolution with your host Heather Warburton. Hi and welcome to Wine Women and Revolution. I'm your host Heather Warburton coming at you here on Create Your Future Productions. It's my brand new home and my brand new website. You can find us online at your future creator.com and great news. Breaking News just today I am pretty much anywhere that you get your podcasts from now you can find Wine, Women and Revolution. They're in our new home and new format. So if you can click on follow, give us likes give us ratings really helps me out since I'm just starting out this new venture on my own. And I'm very excited about what the future is gonna hold. So today we have a great topic. one's definitely important to me. I think most people listening to me today would agree that the state of our electoral system in this country is kind of rough. Like we have vote shaming we have division, we have some of the least inspiring candidates for president that the duopoly has probably ever run. Voter apathy is that one of the all time highs barely more than 50% of people vote. So we kind of need some sort of solution. And my guest today, I think maybe has one of those possible solutions. And it's a solution I've been talking about for a couple years now that I really think is the best possible solution. And that's ranked choice voting. So I'd like to welcome to my show today. Micah Rasmussen. Thanks for having me. So let's get a little bit about your credentials. Why am I having you on to talk about this today? Unknown Speaker 1:50So I'm the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Ryder University. And so, I've spent most of my career as a practitioner of politics of New Jersey politics in particular. And I was governor McGreevy's press secretary was the last job that I held in politics. I also have managed a number of campaigns, I worked in the state legislature, I worked at the Department of Transportation. So I've seen a lot and done a lot. And really the strength that I bring to my students and to my work at the Institute, is that I bring that practical political experience and try to leverage it for the students advantage. And so there aren't too many people who study New Jersey politics in particular, Dr. Rebovich, the guy that the institute is named after was my mentor, when I was a student here at Ryder. And I'm so happy to be continuing the work that he did, and to do the same for new students that he was able to do for me. Micah Rasmussen 2:51And so today, we're talking about ranked choice voting. And I think people have probably heard about it. Now, there's a couple of states that have been trying to get it on the ballot. And here in New Jersey, we actually did have an assembly person put forth proposal to try to get it on the ballot here in New Jersey, right? Yes, Andrew Zwicker. He is an Assemblyman from the Princeton area. He represents parts of Princeton, parts of some parts of Mercer and Somerset County. He is sort of the intellectual heir apparent of a Rush Holt. We have actually two politicians in