Governor Charlie Baker said Tuesday he will vote against the state’s ranked-choice voting ballot measure, making the Swampscott Republican the most high-profile public official to come out against Question 2.
Baker released a joint statement with Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, saying they believe “the system we have now has served the Commonwealth well" and will not support the initiative, which would alter how Massachusetts voters pick candidates for a variety of federal and state offices, including governor.
“At a time when we need to be promoting turnout and making it easier for voters to cast their ballots, we worry that question two will add an additional layer of complication for both voters and election officials, while potentially delaying results and increasing the cost of elections," their statement said.
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As proposed on the November ballot, ranked-choice elections would give voters the option of ranking candidates for an office in order of preference. If a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, he or she is the winner. But if no one does, the candidate with the fewest votes is stripped away and those voters are reallocated to the remaining candidates based on their second choice.
The process goes for as many rounds as it takes for one candidate to earn a majority of votes.
If approved, the new system would be used for primary and general elections for statewide offices — governor, attorney general, and more — as well as congressional, state legislative, and district attorney offices starting in 2022. It would not apply to presidential elections or municipal elections.
Maine is the only state currently using ranked-choice voting, though voters in Massachusetts and Alaska both are weighing statewide initiatives.
The proposal appears to have deeply divided the electorate. A University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB poll released Monday found that 48 percent of likely voters say they planned to vote in favor, compared to 43 percent who said they would vote against it. Nine percent said they were undecided.
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Speaking later at an unrelated State House news conference, Baker said that with the state’s expanded mail-in voting law and the new deadlines it creates — any ballots received by Nov. 6 and postmarked by Nov. 3 can still be counted — election officials are already getting a taste of a “complicated election administratively" under current rules.
“The counting process alone can get unbelievably difficult,” he said of ranked-choice voting, adding that he fears the added rounds of tabulation, and extra time needed to do it, could undercut confidence in the state’s elections.
“I don’t want to overly complicate that process to such an extent that people start to wonder, ‘You know, what is it that’s actually going on here?’” he said.
Supporters say a ranked-choice voting system would allow those with the broadest level of support to win, not just those who eke out a plurality, and can eliminate so-called spoiler candidates in crowded fields. Proponents also argue it provides a disincentive for negative campaigning by prodding candidates to appeal to a larger swath of voters who could rank them as their second choice.
Baker’s announcement puts him at odds with a variety of the state’s high-profile Democratic leaders, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Edward J. Markey, Attorney General Maura Healey, and Representative Ayanna Pressley.
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Shortly after Baker’s campaign released its statement, the Yes on 2 committee behind the ballot question released its own, reiterating some of its leading endorsers, including former governors Deval Patrick, a Democrat, and William F. Weld, a Republican whose cabinet included Baker.
The ballot measure also has drawn hefty financial backing from several wealthy, out-of-state advocates who have helped seed similar efforts around the country.
It’s unclear how actively, if at all, Baker would campaign against the initiative with a week left before Election Day. His administration has been consumed with responding to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and Baker has shown little appetite for politicking, including declining this month to say who he’d vote for president beyond saying he “cannot support” President Trump.
The conservative-led Massachusetts Republican Party, which has increasingly been at odds with the more moderate Baker, has come out against the measure, and a little-funded committee led by a Westford Republican has sprung up to formally oppose it, arguing the measure could confuse some voters.
A Baker aide said the governor has not yet taken a position on the state’s other November ballot question, an expensive and hotly debated measure that seeks to expand the state’s so-called Right to Repair law.
State officials have not provided estimates on what they believe it would cost to run ranked-choice elections.
Baker’s administration, which is required by law to analyze the fiscal impact of ballot questions, said that Question 2 will “likely require” implementation costs for state and local elections officials, but it said the full scope is unknown. A spokeswoman Secretary of State William F. Galvin’s office said it has not done such an analysis, saying costs could vary from election to election depending on how many candidates are running.
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In Maine, state officials said the system added roughly $442,000 in costs in 2018, the first year ranked-choice voting was used there.
Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mattpstout.
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Baker says he opposes ranked-choice voting ballot question, fearing it adds ‘complication’ for voters - The Boston Globe
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