Better Ballot North Carolina (BBNC) is an advocacy organization that promotes ranked choice voting (RCV), a voting method intended to give voters multiple choices, in addition to a variety of electoral changes that aim at broadening the voter pool.

Background

Better Ballot North Carolina was founded in July 2020. Better Ballot North Carolina is primarily dedicated to promoting ranked choice voting at local, county, and state levels. RCV would allow voters to “rank” candidates on a ballot according to their preference from most to least; then, all ranked ballots are tabulated until a majority winner emerges with more than 50 percent of the vote. It represents the North Carolina branch of a nationwide campaign promoting RCV. ¹

Activities

Better Ballot North Carolina aims to educate voters about ranked choice voting and its benefits. BBNC’s version of RCV envisions a process where voters would rank their candidates by most to least favorite. Then, the electors would tally voters’ first choices and see if any candidate received a majority of the vote. They are automatically declared the winner if so; if not, the electors would eliminate the last place candidate and any ballots for said candidate would go toward the voters’ next choice. The ballots would be retallied to see if a majority emerges, and the process would repeat if one did not. ²

BBNC encourages its readers to sign a petition it intends to show North Carolina legislators to convince them that there is popular support for RCV. ³

It appeals to the state government by claiming that RCV saves taxpayer money by avoiding “costly” and “time-consuming” run-off elections. ^{4 5}

In its first twelve months, BBNC held 30 public engagement events and activities, created an outreach team of seven individuals who put in over 100 hours of public engagement and canvassing, applied for a grant from a national funding group, and developed a support base of 83 contributors. ⁶

Partners

Better Ballot North Carolina lists FairVote, Ballotpedia, RankIt (a project of FairVote), Rank the Vote, Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center, and Ranked Choice Voting Facts (a project of FairVote) as “partner websites.” ⁷

Funding

In 2020, Better Ballot North Carolina reported revenue of $1,853, expenses of $881, and net assets of $972. ⁸

In its 2021 annual report, BBNC claimed to have over 100 unique financial supporters and to have received over $6,500 in contributions in its first 12 months. ⁹

People

Better Ballot North Carolina has an educational outreach team, an onboarding team which welcomes and acclimates new supporters, a communications team which handles the organization’s online and print messaging, an art & creative team that creates promotional graphics, a fundraising team, and a data management team. It encourages supporters to apply for positions on these teams. ¹⁰ BBNC claims to be a “100% volunteer-run” organization which uses all donations on its operating expenses. ¹¹ In its 2021 annual report, BBNC claimed to have over 1,000 supporters, over 100 volunteers, and over 100 financial supporters. ¹²

1. ^[1] “About Us.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://www.betterballotnc.org/about.
2. “FAQ.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://www.betterballotnc.org/faq.
3. “Support Ranked Choice Voting in North Carolina.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://www.betterballotnc.org/support.
4. “Home.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://www.betterballotnc.org/.
5. “About Us.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://www.betterballotnc.org/about.
6. “Annual Report First Fiscal Year Better Ballot North Carolina.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/qmBZHeWmV2d7vgKt9HS566FQ/upload/download/BBNC%20Annual%20Report%20-%202021.pdf.
7. “Partner Websites.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://www.betterballotnc.org/helpful_links.
8. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Better Ballot North Carolina. 2020. Part I, lines 9, 17, 21.
9. “Annual Report First Fiscal Year Better Ballot North Carolina.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/qmBZHeWmV2d7vgKt9HS566FQ/upload/download/BBNC%20Annual%20Report%20-%202021.pdf
10. “Volunteer.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://www.betterballotnc.org/volunteer.
11. ^[1] “Donate.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://www.betterballotnc.org/donate.
12. “Annual Report First Fiscal Year Better Ballot North Carolina.” Better Ballot North Carolina. Accessed February 12, 2023. https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/qmBZHeWmV2d7vgKt9HS566FQ/upload/download/BBNC%20Annual%20Report%20-%202021.pdf