To the Editor:
The recent District 7 preliminary was a perfect reminder of why we need Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in our city elections. Eleven candidates ran. The top two squeaked by with less than a third of the vote combined. The third-place finisher missed advancing by just 17 votes and called for a recount, which did not move him up. That’s not a recipe for voter confidence.
What Boston’s Home Rule petition would do is simple: Instead of sending just two candidates to the general election, four would advance. That means far more voters would see their preferred candidate on the November ballot, giving them more reason to turn out. And by allowing voters to rank those four options in the general election, RCV would ensure the winner reflects the majority will of the people.
We’ve seen this movie before. In 2013, the top two in the mayor’s race had just 36 percent combined in the preliminary balloting. If four had advanced, 61 percent of voters would’ve seen their pick in the general. In 2017, District 7 finalists barely cleared a third of the vote. In 2021, moving forward four would have given 95 percent of voters their preferred candidate in November.
And now, in 2025, District 7 is déjà vu: 70 percent of voters backed candidates who won’t appear on the general ballot.
It’s time to break the cycle. The Legislature should act on what Boston has already done — an 8–4 City Council vote and the Mayor’s signature sending the Home Rule petition forward — and pair it with the RCV Local Option Bill [S.531].
Together, these measures would finally give Boston and other cities the tools to adopt ranked choice voting. Our voters deserve elections where every voice is heard and every vote counts.
This letter was submitted by Edwyn Shoemaker of Dorchester, the executive director at Voter Choice MA, which promotes the adoption of RCV.
