Gov. Ned Lamont’s flirtations with the concept of ranked-choice voting took another step forward on Tuesday, as a working group empanelled by the Democratic governor to study the issue met for the first time.
The group — composed of lawmakers, election reformers, as well as state and local officials — was formed by Lamont earlier this month and charged with the task of making a set of recommendations related to ranked-choice voting that can be considered by the state legislature early next year.
Ranked-choice, or instant-runoff voting generally refers to a system where voters rank multiple candidates by order of preference on the ballot. If no candidate earns an outright majority, lower-performing candidates are eliminated and their supporters’ other preferences are added to the remaining candidates until a winner is determined, thus eliminating the need for runoff elections.