On Thursday, October 15th, members of the Massachusetts Our Climate team got together with other youth leaders from across the state to assist MA citizens in devising a strategy to vote, and to encourage them to vote in favor of three, key ballot questions. This story from Our Climate’s MA Program Intern, Ian Galinson.
From our recent phone bank!
MA OC’s voter mobilization team joined forces with MassPIRG Students (Massachusetts Student Public Interest Research Group), BSAC (Boston Student Advisory Council), and other youth-led environmental organizations to phonebank around MA as the voting deadline creeps closer and closer. With over 50 participants, we were able to reach all corners of the state.
Our Climate did, however, push for voters to vote yes on three of the subsequent ballot measures. The first measure, Question 2, addresses ranked-choice voting. Ranked choice voting allows voters to, as the name suggests, rank their choices of elected officials as opposed to voting for just one candidate. This would help prevent climate champions from splitting a vote and losing to a fossil fool. While a number of states use ranked choice voting for certain types of elections, or in specific counties, Maine is currently the only state in the US to use state-wide ranked choice voting. Vote Yes on Ballot Question 2 to join Our Climate in supporting ranked choice voting!
The OC team also advocated for two non-binding ballot measures that are only on the ballots of certain MA districts (so don’t be worried if it isn’t on yours!). The first of these proposals focuses on renewable energy. You might see this measure labeled as Question 3. It asks voters whether their respective representative should vote in favor of using 100% renewable energy sources by the end of the following two decades. This measure also indicates that strategies of implementation would take effect immediately, and would work towards making substantial progress in the coming five years, all while protecting the rights of workers and businesses.
Field Reps Alice Fan and Aiden Wang advocating for renewable energy in Lowell, MA!
The second of the two non-binding measures instructs district representatives to vote in favor of a transparent MA House of Representatives. In other words, voting yes to this non-binding question would help to release the voting records of representatives in the committees where our most important climate legislation died last session.
So, we at Our Climate urge you to vote, and if you are from MA or have friends who are, keep an eye out for these ballot questions 🙂 They certainly take strides towards strengthening America’s sense of democracy, and working towards a science-focused, equitable and sustainable future!