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Better Elections

Type:

Ballot Initiative Organizer
Location:

Missouri

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Better Elections is a Missouri-based advocacy group formed in 2021 to place a Ranked Choice Voting ballot initiative on Missouri ballots in the 2022 elections. The organization is as of early 2022 gathering signatures on a petition to put a question on the 2022 ballot that, if approved, would amend the Missouri State Constitution to require an all-party primary in which the top four finishers of any partisan affiliations would advance to a general election that would in turn employ ranked-choice voting. The proposed changes would apply to all statewide, congressional, and state legislative elections in the state and are modeled after a measure enacted by Alaska voters in 2020. 1 2

The effort is being led by David Roland, a libertarian-leaning public interest attorney and co-founder of the Freedom Center of Missouri. It is also supported by the St. Louis NAACP. The organization announced it had received $670,000 from a Virginia-based nonprofit called “Article IV” to fund its petition effort. 3 4 5

Background

Better Elections was formed in 2021. The organization announced it would be collecting petition signatures to place one of two questions on the 2022 statewide ballot to amend the Missouri state constitution to force open primaries and ranked-choice voting. The two initiatives were filed by David Roland in July 2021 and approved by the Missouri Secretary of State to begin petition gathering in September 2021. 6 7

Proposed Initiatives

The two initiatives filed by Better Elections seek to institute the same changes to elections in the state but use different wording. They are titled Initiative 51 and Initiative 52. It is unclear which question the group will collect petitions for as of January 2022. Both proposed initiatives would end political party primaries in the state and replace them with an open primary in which candidates from all political parties are listed on the same ballot, with the top four candidates advancing to a general election runoff. The general election would employ ranked-choice voting where voters rank choices and election officials determine a winner using an instant runoff system. 8

Better Elections will be required to submit the signatures by May 8, 2022 and will need to file at least 160,000 valid signatures for the proposal to qualify for the ballot. 9

Funding

David Roland, who has been reported to be the head of the Better Elections campaign, announced that the organization had received $670,000 from a group based in Virginia called Article IV. Virginia state records indicate that Article IV was formed in April 2021 as a nonprofit organization that is not required to disclose donors. Article IV’s office address is listed as a UPS Store in Alexandria, Virginia. 10 11 12

People

David Roland is the leader of the Better Elections effort. Roland is a libertarian-leaning attorney based in Missouri who co-founded the right-leaning nonprofit Freedom Center of Missouri and previously worked for the right-leaning Institute for Justice. Roland has been involved in election-related litigation in Missouri over the years and has won multiple precedent-setting election law cases in state court. 13

The campaign is also supported by John Bowman, the president of the St. Louis NAACP. 14

References

  1. Hancock, Josh. “Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting.” Missouri Independent. November 29, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2021.  https://missouriindependent.com/2021/11/29/group-hopes-to-amend-missouri-constitution-to-enact-ranked-choice-voting/
  2. “Missouri Top-Four Ranked Choice Voting (2022).” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 9, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Top-Four_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative_(2022)
  3. “Missouri Top-Four Ranked Choice Voting (2022).” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 9, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Top-Four_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative_(2022)
  4. Hancock, Josh. “Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting.” Missouri Independent. November 29, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2021.  https://missouriindependent.com/2021/11/29/group-hopes-to-amend-missouri-constitution-to-enact-ranked-choice-voting/
  5. Hancock, Josh. “Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting.” Missouri Independent. November 29, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2021.  https://missouriindependent.com/2021/11/29/group-hopes-to-amend-missouri-constitution-to-enact-ranked-choice-voting/
  6. Hancock, Josh. “Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting.” Missouri Independent. November 29, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2021.  https://missouriindependent.com/2021/11/29/group-hopes-to-amend-missouri-constitution-to-enact-ranked-choice-voting/
  7. “Missouri Top-Four Ranked Choice Voting (2022).” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 9, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Top-Four_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative_(2022)
  8.  “Missouri Top-Four Ranked Choice Voting (2022).” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 9, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Top-Four_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative_(2022)
  9. “Missouri Top-Four Ranked Choice Voting (2022).” Ballotpedia. Accessed December 9, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Top-Four_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative_(2022)
  10. Hancock, Josh. “Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting.” Missouri Independent. November 29, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2021.  https://missouriindependent.com/2021/11/29/group-hopes-to-amend-missouri-constitution-to-enact-ranked-choice-voting/
  11. “Entity Search: Article IV.” Virginia State Corporation Commission. Accessed December 9, 2021. https://cis.scc.virginia.gov/EntitySearch/BusinessMissingRequest
  12. Hancock, Josh. “Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting.” Missouri Independent. November 29, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2021.  https://missouriindependent.com/2021/11/29/group-hopes-to-amend-missouri-constitution-to-enact-ranked-choice-voting/
  13. “About.” Freedom Center of Missouri. Accessed December 9, 2021. http://www.mofreedom.org/about/
  14. Hancock, Josh. “Group hopes to amend Missouri constitution to enact ranked-choice voting.” Missouri Independent. November 29, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2021.  https://missouriindependent.com/2021/11/29/group-hopes-to-amend-missouri-constitution-to-enact-ranked-choice-voting/
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