Advocating for National Research of Alternative Voting Methods in Black and Brown Communities.

Now, we're going to move now back to microphone number eight, and you are Miss Nina Taylor. >> Thank you, Chairman. Uh, my name is Nina Taylor. I represent the Washington DC branch 7001B. 52 American cities are using rank choice voting, most recently Washington DC, with 19 states preemptively banning it. 20 states have open primaries with two additional ballot initiatives moving across the country and a legal challenge in Maryland. Approval voting is used in two American cities with statewide enacting legislation with bipartisan bill sponsors in Maryland, Utah, and New Hampshire. Star Voting narrowly lost its ballot initiative in Eugene, Oregon last year and has advocated for this system in Washington State and California. Meanwhile, academia has published white papers reviewing proportional systems of Ireland and Canada to re-engineer American democracy. and citizen-led assemblies have popped up in Colorado and California with an aim to engage citizens in democracy, foster public participation, and restore faith in democratic processes. This isn't a warning shot. This is a crystal clear signal that there is a change at the ballot box. And the amendment calls for a proactive understanding on how these reforms impact black and brown communities, our older generations and young voters, >> which is to amend the rec resolve clause such that it reads that the NAACP calls for thorough research and pilot programs on voting reforms such as approval voting, proportional representation, rank choice voting, and open primaries. The NACP specifically supports the need for research and pilot initiatives to evaluate their effectiveness in boosting participation and representation for black and brown communities, ensuring that all data is disagregated by race and geography to provide clear insights for future considerations and recommendations. Is there a second? >> Properly moved and seconded. Is there further discussion? >> Microphone 10. >> Yes. Thank you very much. My name is Brenda Harbinforte from the Oakland chapter, branch 1051B. I >> branch branch branch >> I'm sorry. >> Branch >> branch 1051B is what I said. Oakland Branch 1051B, Oakland, California. I rise in opposition to the proposed amendment, not because many of the issues aren't important, but because this proposed amendment would require that the NAACP address issues that are actually quite local. I mentioned specifically Oakland, California and I mentioned specifically and my concern relates to rank choice voting. It actually deprivives us of our constitutional rights to vote. Our votes get thrown out. Our votes get watered down. Rank choice voting deprivives us of one person, one vote. In the 2022 mayor's election in uh in Oakland, more than 3,000 ballots were thrown out because they were improperly filled out. Those voters lost their right to vote. Those votes were primarily in communities of color. It is very difficult to actually get qualified candidates elected under a rank choice voting system. So while I think yes people should look at it >> but it should be a local issue and not a national issue and this amendment would open us up to say that we are studying it instead of allowing this to be handled by local jurisdictions. >> So I urge people to reject this proposed amendment. >> It is disastrous. on the amendment. Microphone five. >> Hello. Um, hi, I'm Heather Jones Brown from 404B branch of the De Mo branch and the state of Iowa and Nebraska state conference. Um, I am just rising to be in favor of this amendment. Um, because I believe that if we can study and get information, then we can be able to properly inform our units at the local level to be able to make decisions that that work best for their communities. Thank you. >> Microphone 8. >> Hello, I'm Aaron Meyers. uh 701B Washington DC branch. I said in support of uh the added language because it doesn't take a certain action other than the research needed to ensure this is something that the NAACP should be uh further supporting. So I stand in support of this language. Thank you. >> Microphone 7. >> Good afternoon. Loya Gadson, Jamaica Branch, NAACP, New York State. Sir, we stand in support of the amendment. If we look around in the past 15 years, we've seen the federal government and the Supreme Court have attacked the right to vote for black folks. What her amendment is basically doing said, let's do research on rank choice. What we've done in our survey, we've seen that the descendants of those who died and got their behind cut for the right to vote do not understand the whole rank choice vote process. That's not going to encourage them to come to the polls. We do need further research and study on this. We lost it. What clause two of the voting right act of 1965? We lost that. There's another attack in the federal region. What section 8? We lost that. Our right to vote is being attacked. This is an attempt to dilute the black voting strength nationwide. Why not? We the NAACP. We've always believed in the right to vote for people of color. And this rank choice voting dilute that attempt for us. Therefore, her amendment call for further research and study. We need this amendment to pass. And I invite the delegates, please support our right to vote. >> Microphone five. >> Yes. Uh Kenneth Reeves uh president of branch 2047A Cambridge, Massachusetts, also known as the People's Republic of Cambridge. Uh we have had ranch rank choice v voting for decades and we are a a majority white city with a majority people of color elected group of people. The issue with rank choice joke voting is that the people who run the elections have to make sure that voters understand how to rank their voices. So it's not the system that is the problem. It's the voter education that is essential to go along with adopting this system. Thank you. >> Microphone 10. Microphone 10. >> Don Yeah. Donald Gallow senior. uh Reno Sparks, Nevada, uh branch 1112B. And I'm against this. I've opposed this resolution because it is going to be diluting the um vote, but it's also going to put a lot of pressure on the NACP. we've already got our um a lot of work to do and I don't think that we have the manpower woman power to actually uh perform a pilot program for all of these choices. So I I want to oppose this >> microphone five. >> William Reynolds, Akan, Ohio 3169B. I rise in support of the amendment because I'm hearing what people are saying, but a national move starts out locally. everything that happens is voted on uh in in the localities. So I am in favor of this amendment because researching and learning more about these systems will help the votes and voters be better counted. >> All right, I see no one. Oh, microphone 10. >> Yes, my name is Cynthia Adams. I'm the president of the Oakland branch in WACP 1051. And I am against the uh for rank choice voting. It hit Oakland very hard with our seniors. Special lifetime members did not understand about rank choice voting. We have to be very very careful about this. We're going around letting everyone tell us what to do. But until we educate our community about rank choice voting, we are losing our members. We are losing our community. 300 all those votes were thrown out. And we got to remember one thing. They worked hard for this. And I'm very hurt to see seniors coming to meetings crying and begging us about helping them about rank choice voting. I do not like it. I feel the NAACP need to look into it better and stop listening to other people. Thank you. >> Microphone number four. >> You're calling the question. Question has been called on on the question of the amendment from Miss Taylor. All those in favor of Miss Taylor's amendment will press your green button. If you oppose Miss Taylor's amendment, you will press your red button. And the amendment is adopted 524 to 174.