Is our current system the best we can do? Can we “Improve the Vote?” Are there ways to make our elections more fair, and to give voters a greater say in who is chosen? 

Some states have adopted ranked-choice voting, a method where voters use a rank to order candidates or options—in a sequence from first, second, third, and onwards—on their ballots.

Speakers (in alphabetical order):

John Aldrich Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Aldrich is known for several books and articles on various topics including political parties, partisanship, and electoral systems.

Barry Fagin Professor of Computer Science and a Senior Fellow at the Independence Institute in Denver, CO. He is the author of scholarly papers on a wide variety of scientific and social topics, including ranked choice voting.

Scott Kendall  Attorney, former Chief of Staff to the Governor of Alaska, and Senior Advisor at the Institute for Political Innovation. Kendall is known for his work drafting and defending a 2020 Ballot Measure in Alaska. 

John Ketcham  Director of state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute. 

Nathan Lockwood is Executive Director of Rank the Vote. He was highly involved in the movement for voter choice in Massachusetts. 

Hans von Spakovsky is a Senior Legal Fellow in The Heritage Foundation and also serves as Manager of The Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative. He studies and writes about a variety of topics including voter fraud and voter ID, enforcement of federal voting rights laws, and administration of elections.

A Braver Angels debate is a conversation in which a group of people think together, listen carefully to one another, and allow themselves to be touched and perhaps changed by each other’s ideas.  This file might help you understand the debate process that we use.