sa国际传媒官网网页入口

Ranked choice voting, aka instant runoffs, once again died by the hands of the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 City Council. Instead, our city will continue to conduct expensive second elections with low turnouts to determine who represents communities at the city level.

It鈥檚 no secret that Common Cause New Mexico has been advocating for instant runoffs for a while, seeing their success in municipalities here and across the country. When candidates have to work to gain support from not only their base, but fight to be an option for every voter, elections are less polarized, more civil and see higher turnouts. Voters get to hear what candidates will do for communities instead of the current barrage of toxic campaigning that just makes people tired and weary of any candidate and distrustful of elections.

Our City Council earlier this month nixed the idea of instant run offs with a vote 6-3, even with more than five times as many community members speaking in support than against the measure. Even after months of receiving constituent calls and emails, voters speaking in support of RCV at every council meeting for months and plenty of educational media around the pros of the system.

On more than one occasion going back to 2024, Councilor Dan Lewis has said that RCV is far too confusing for voters, but Common Cause doesn鈥檛 question the intelligence of voters. Our organizer has talked to hundreds of voters about RCV and people are enthusiastic about it.

Councilor Klarissa Pe帽a has said RCV is bad for candidates of color or women running for office 鈥� but we鈥檝e provided ample data proving otherwise, with the information falling on deaf ears. They say it goes against the 鈥渙ne person, one vote鈥� decree of democracy 鈥� which it doesn鈥檛 at all. One person still gets one ballot, and their vote is only counted once in one election. It鈥檚 not that hard. Councilor Joaqu铆n Baca supported RCV in 2024 but voted against it this year. What changed?

I鈥檓 going to say the quiet part out loud 鈥� this isn鈥檛 about what鈥檚 best for voters, this is about power. This vote was all about sa国际传媒官网网页入口 city councilors keeping the power they hold. They鈥檙e afraid that if RCV is implemented, they鈥檒l lose their position and the power they hold over our communities.

Common Cause is here for the people. We鈥檙e here to reaffirm that being an elected official doesn鈥檛 revolve around maintaining power, it revolves around representing your communities and their wants and needs. We believe our city councilors should be engaging with and encouraging participation from all voters, not just the ones they think will agree with them.

Our coalition partners know that voters can handle RCV. We know that voters want RCV. Our December 2025 poll found that 59% of voters in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 would prefer to adopt a single-election with instant run offs rather than the current broken system.

Access to voting and ensuring that candidates win with a majority of the vote is not a partisan issue. Making sure that people who want to vote can do so without barriers is a democracy issue.

As a nonpartisan advocacy organization, we don鈥檛 impact how the political scale shifts and moves. We鈥檙e here to speak for communities, for the people who cast their ballots and participate in the systems around them. And we鈥檙e here to make sure the people in power do their jobs in return to represent and protect their districts鈥� well-being 鈥� not hoard power in City Hall.

sa国际传媒官网网页入口 still needs RCV, and we will continue to organize so the people will be heard.

Molly Swank is the executive director for Common Cause New Mexico, a nonpartisan democracy advocacy organization.