Drama breaks out at DNC over plan to ban ranked choice voting in Dem elections
WASHINGTON – Nancy Pelosi’s daughter and Rep.Jamie Raskin are going scorched earth on the Democratic Party for trying to do away with a bizarre style of voting designed to help the underdog candidate and used in New York City.The Democratic National Committee gathered in Austin Thursday to spend the weekend setting up rules for the next few rounds of elections, including a presidential primary calendar that could favor Kamala Harris and voting on a proposal to ban ranked-choice voting.The controversy comes amid a Democratic identity crisis.
The midterm primaries have exposed the divide between the vocal left wing and the establishment standard-bearers.President Trump and Republicans have taken advantage of the confusion to paint Democrats as led by communists – a critique likely to stay in place through the 2028 election.Ranked choice voting is a complicated system, which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third, and so forth.Raskin, D-Md., said the practice allows the party to be in closer contact with voters, a fear he’s addressed as he travels this summer.
He wrote on social media he’s getting questions about whether the party “has lost touch with the Democratic grassroots engaged in the fight against Trump and MAGA.I try to assure people that our party leaders are working hard to bolster all the sensational action taking place at the state and local level.”Advocates say ranked choice voting – used statewide in Maine and Alaska and in large urban areas like Washington DC and New York City – allows for greater choice.“This effort is not only an attack on the right of Democratic state parties to make their own rules and respond to their own constituents, but it also moves us in exactly the wrong direction in promoting electoral democracy,” Raskin said of attempts to ban the practice.Christine Pelosi, the daughter of the former speaker and one of 452 voting members of the DNC, vowed to vote against the pr...