THE SCOOP: IRV FOR TEXAS
Our Legislators Need Our Guidance!
Advocate Coaching Sessions
Vote Your Way in November!
Where IRV is Being Used in 2024
SPOTLIGHT: Board Member Mary Beth Gilbert
Statewide Meeting, September 25th
Instant Runoff Voting for Texas: New Name, Same Mission
Our Legislators Need Our Guidance!
On a daily basis, your elected officials make important decisions on state and local policy issues, and you should let them know when you strongly support or oppose an issue or a certain piece of legislation. Share your concerns, your personal experience - how IRV would affect you and your community. Legislators want to know what issues are important to you. Be a catalyst for change! IRV for Texas has three different opportunities to give you the skills you need to open a dialogue with your legislator. Here’s how!
1) Get To Know Your Legislator Program
Instant Runoff Voting for Texas wants to invite you to join our “Get to Know Your Legislator” project. With the general election season coming to a close before we can blink an eye, it's time to regroup and map out a strategy for the coming year at the Texas legislature. Specifically, we are working to build a strong local foundation of support and awareness around Instant Runoff Voting and start to facilitate conversations between constituents and local and state officials. Join us!
2) Charter Review Process
Is your city or town convening a Charter Review Commission in 2025 or 2026?
Why do we want to know? To eliminate costly, low turnout runoff elections in Texas, we need to change the Texas Election Code. We need more jurisdictions, especially more conservative leaning ones, to propose through their charter review process a trigger ordinance to allow instant runoff elections in their nonpartisan municipal elections.
This will show the legislature there is demand to use it. It would be great to have your help. We'll show you how. Make democracy work!
3) Legislative Action
During the 2025 legislative session, constituents are encouraged to visit the capital to advocate directly with our representatives during committee meetings that are discussing Instant Runoff legislation. Your voice matters!
Advocate Coaching Sessions
Are you interested in advocating for Instant Runoff Voting and want some help preparing? We have two upcoming coaching sessions will be held on Tuesday, October 15 and Thursday, October 24. Please RSVP here.
Vote Your Way in November!
The general election takes place on November 5 this year. By now you need to be registered to vote. In order to take advantage of the different ways to vote, keep the following dates in mind:
October 25: Deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot
October 21: Early voting begins
November 1: Early voting ends
For more voting information, such as "What's on the ballot?" or "Where's my polling place?", this link takes you to VoteTexas.gov, the one-stop resource for voter information. Those who are voting by mail can also track their mail in ballot.
Where IRV is Being Used in 2024
SPOTLIGHT:
Board Member Mary Beth Gilbert
Mary Beth Gilbert has spent her life advocating for the causes in which she truly believes. A graduate of Marquette University and the University of Texas law school, Mary Beth began her career working with healthcare entities for several well-known Houston law firms. After her daughter was born, she began volunteering for various organizations and advocating for the less fortunate. She is a long-term member of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where she has focused on school-based mental health legislation. She has been a guardian ad litem for Child Advocates, representing the neediest of children, a floor host for MD Anderson Hospital, and a volunteer for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, where for over 20 years she has helped fulfill the wishes of dying and seriously ill children.
Mary Beth is also a devoted politics and policy enthusiast. She has been active in numerous national bipartisan organizations, including Principles First, Braver Angels and others. Her current interests include Constitutional issues related to the separation of powers, mental health parity, reducing the cost of health care, and of course instant runoff voting. She has also been an elections clerk for Harris County since 2016.
Mary Beth explains why she supports IRV: “I support instant runoff voting to save the money spent on low turnout runoffs, and to ensure candidates are elected by a majority of voters rather than a plurality of voters. Instant runoff voting can improve the tone and tenor of campaigns as candidates try to earn support of a broad swath of voters.”
Statewide Meeting, September 25th
IRV for Texas held a statewide meeting on September 25th. Advocates, volunteers and community leaders came together to discuss expanding IRV across the state.
Both those who were new to IRV and those who were experienced supporters discovered how IRV can improve our electoral system, how vital their participation is and how they can get involved in making Texas elections more fair and representative. With the Texas legislative session convening early next year, now is the time to concentrate our efforts.
Participants were made aware of the following opportunities to get plugged in to our efforts.
- The easiest and quickest way to spread the word about instant runoff voting is to like, comment and share our social media posts.
- Funding is vital to our lean, volunteer driven organization, to help finance our experienced legislative support and our outreach and education expenses.
- Donations are greatly appreciated, whether one-time or recurring. Recurring donations allow for better budgeting and planning. It's easy to donate by clicking the donate button below.
Staying connected to our legislative process is vital to a democracy. Please join us in advocating for instant runoff voting in Texas!
Instant Runoff Voting for Texas:
New Name, Same Mission
Our new name is in our updated logo, on our website and in all communications. You might see it shortened to IRV, or used in other ways like "instant runoff elections: or simply "instant runoffs".
The message, and the mission, remain the same: Instant runoff voting will improve the voting experience, save time and money, and help ensure broad voter support for winning candidates.
What We Are Reading
Commentary: Ranked choice voting may be a solution to our polarized politics - Pennsylvania Capital-Star
In the last two presidential elections, Joe Biden and Donald Trump won Pennsylvania without a majority. Fewer than 85,000 votes separated the Democratic and Republican candidates in both 2016 and 2020 - while third-party candidates like Jill Stein and Gary Johnson won hundreds of thousands of votes. With Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump tied in the polls here, history is likely to repeat itself this November. It's time to fix this. Ranked choice voting would guarantee majority winners and solve the spoiler problem, once and for all.
They'll drink to that: Ranked-choice voting gets sudsy test in Morristown bar - Morristown Green Contributor
Voter Choice New Jersey and the League of Women Voters of the Morristown Area in New Jersey hosted an event at Hops Craft Bar in Morristown, New Jersey to introduce ranked choice voting. Participants taste-tested and ranked their beers, while the hosts commanded a Powerpoint presentation explaining the system, also known as Instant Runoff Voting. Find out how the process worked and which beer was the winner.
If you haven't yet, follow us on social media. You can find us anywhere:
We need your help!
Leading the charge for better elections in Texas through our grassroots campaign requires resources and help from committed supporters like you. $5 or $25 dollars makes a difference.
Please help bring instant runoff voting to Texas by donating today!
Customize Your Communication Preferences
IRV for Texas is working on changes to allow you to tell us your communication preferences. New sign-ups can choose if they only want to receive Action Alerts, or also want to receive newsletters, or all meeting and other announcements too. Now you can specify your preferences by filling out this short form.
Instant Runoff Voting for Texas