2024 Annual Report

Background: Rank the Vote Ohio (RTVO) was founded by volunteers in 2020 as a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan nonprofit organization for the purpose of educating Ohioans about Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and its benefits.

Mission: “To give voters greater choice, a stronger voice, and a representative democracy that works for all Ohioans.”

Executive Director: Denise Riley

Board Members: Chris Anderson, Kyle Herman, Torika Thompson, Dan Zavon

Summary: In 2024, RTVO focused on assisting local initiatives for RCV, worked to broaden the ideological diversity of our supporter base, and raised $40,000 from in-state contributions to reach a matching goal and become more financially self-sufficient. For 2025, RTVO expects even more opportunities to support local initiatives, anticipates continued defense against attempts to ban RCV, and plans to restructure and decentralize in order to be more authentically grassroots-driven and responsive to citizens and communities in Ohio that want to pursue RCV.

Progress in 2024: 

Increased from 16,000 to more than 20,000 registered supporters. While RTVO’s funding for organizers decreased from 2023, and our focus shifted away from statewide list-building and toward more focused outreach to certain communities, our organizers and volunteers were still able to recruit more than 4,300 new supporters through canvassing, tabling, presentations, and online outreach and social media.

Raised more than $40,000 from in-state donations. RTVO was offered a matching grant from an anonymous donor in February 2024, with a goal to raise $40,000 in order to unlock a matching grant for $40,000 by December 15. Through various fundraising tactics including email blasts, dialing-for-dollars, textbanking, grant-writing, in-person events (like “rank your beers” parties), and personal asks, RTVO was able to surpass the goal, with $42,613 raised from nearly 200 individuals during the grant period.

Helped advance charter amendments for RCV to consideration by three city councils:

• Cleveland Heights: RCV was recommended by the Charter Review Commission (CRC) and is still under consideration by Council for if/when they will put an amendment on the ballot.

• Lakewood: RCV was recommended by the CRC and is still under consideration by Council for if/when they will put an amendment on the ballot.

• Riverside: A majority of Council (including the Mayor, who serves as the presiding officer) voted to put a charter amendment for RCV on the ballot, however they later realized that because they had not followed the formal CRC process, they would have needed a supermajority to put the amendment on the ballot. Additionally, the Mayor and Council received unclear feedback from the Montgomery County Board of Elections about whether the Board would update its machines with software to facilitate RCV.

Defended against two ban bills at the Ohio Statehouse. RTVO mobilized disciplined opposition to SB 137 (a bill to “generally prohibit” RCV and financially punish cities that use it) during hearings held by the Senate General Government Committee in February and April. In total, more than 60 individuals or organizations submitted opponent testimony (most of whom were individual Ohioans), compared to only 14 proponents (most of whom were out-of-state lobbyists). We received positive coverage on Toledo’s local 13 Action News after the February hearing. We sent a follow-up to members of the committee addressing questions raised during their April 24 hearing, and the bill remained stalled in committee.

In November, HB 684 was introduced and referred to the House Government Oversight Committee, with sponsor testimony on November 20. RTVO contacted all the committee members prior to the meeting to offer ourselves as a resource and to flag that the Statehouse’s Legislative Service Commission had warned that HB 684 was unconstitutional because its outright ban of RCV at the city level was contrary to Ohio Supreme Court precedents that upheld municipalities’ home rule authority to use RCV. Several of the committee members raised questions to the sponsors about the constitutionality of this infringement on home rule, and one of the sponsors responded that perhaps they should do a constitutional amendment so the whole state could vote to ban RCV.

Ideologically-diverse coalition-building. RTVO made a conscious effort to try to reach an ideologically diverse array of voters, with recognition that Ohio seemed to be a center-right state in recent elections. We tried to find places with conservative audiences to help keep our outreach ideologically diverse. Our public messaging and social media is nonpartisan, but frequently features conservative supporters and conservative arguments for RCV. RTVO helped organize the first theatrical screening of Majority Rules in Ohio and attempted to recruit open-minded conservatives to learn about how RCV worked in red Alaska, where it has broad bipartisan support within its state legislature. RTVO’s September Statewide Meeting focused on a panel of leaders from nonpartisan civic groups about how to bridge divides in partisan times. Our Featured Speaker for our October Statewide Meeting was a Republican who had served as County Commissioner in Seneca County. RTVO helped arrange for former Utah Republican Party Chair Stan Lockhart to meet with Republican leaders in Cincinnati. Riverside's Mayor and another Republican joined two Democratic Councilmembers to vote in favor of putting their charter amendment for RCV on the ballot. 

Priorities for 2025:

Advise municipal campaigns for RCV. Without a visible path to a statewide ballot initiative in the foreseeable future (unless a hero emerges with the tens of millions of dollars that ballot initiatives cost), RTVO will focus on assisting local initiatives by providing charter review commissions, city councils, civic groups, and the general public with education, advice, and connections with potential allies. In addition to building upon RTVO’s progress in 2024 with Cleveland Heights, Lakewood, and Riverside, RTVO will hold its January Statewide Meeting in conjunction with an in-person Cincinnati Chapter Launch to build a grassroots team to work with the Charter Committee of Cincinnati as they lead a signature-collection campaign for RCV. RTVO is also seeking opportunities to present RCV for consideration by charter review commissions and councils in other cities.

Defend against further attempts to ban RCV. While RTVO was able to help stall SB 137 and HB 684 until they expired at the end of the 2024, we expect ban bills to be reintroduced in some form in 2025 because partisan oligarchs are deeply invested in attempts to ban RCV. RTVO plans to monitor such bills and mobilize testimony against them with disciplined messaging similar to the testimony given by volunteers in 2024.

Reorganize structurally to be more grassroots-driven than donor-driven. We are grateful to the major donor for giving us the $40,000 matching challenge to encourage RTVO to become more self-sufficient by focusing on raising in-state funding in 2024. We are also grateful for the advice and consultations we received through our relationship with the donor. For most of 2023 and 2024, Rank the Vote Ohio’s leadership tried to align organizational messaging strategically in accordance with “insider” political analysis in an attempt to avoid provoking hostility from legislators and in attempt to avoid “unforced errors” that could harm a future statewide initiative. We now understand that in order to be a more truly self-sustaining grassroots organization, RTVO needs to decentralize its leadership so that major decisions can be made more collectively by grassroots supporters, while accountability mechanisms must also be developed to facilitate an environment of trust based on informed, strategic, and action-oriented cooperation among members. We plan to invite all supporters to a “Fun, Food, and Friendship” community-building social retreat in February 2025. This will be followed by a Strategic Planning Conference in March, for which we plan to hire a professional facilitator to guide us through a democratic process to propose reforms to our organization and bylaws for consideration by our Board.

2024 Finances: 

Total Revenue: $125,748.25

Total Expenditures: $48,887.61

Organizers: $40,000.00

Outreach activities: $6,882.81

Administrative: $2,004.80

After receiving and spending $80,000 from an anonymous donor to hire Organizers and launch regional chapters in 2023, RTVO received $40,000 from Anonymous in February 2024 along with an offer to match up to $40,000 raised by December 15. This was double the $20,000 RTVO raised from grassroots supporters in 2023. While RTVO had exponentially grown its supporter list through live outreach in 2023, RTVO retained less organizers and was more conservative with its spending in 2024. With the lower budget, RTVO spent more time and energy focused on fundraising to reach the matching goal so that RTVO could afford to retain organizers in 2025 – amidst uncertainty over whether more consistent funding sources could be identified. RTVO explored and applied for various grants, ultimately receiving $5,000 from the Cincinnati-based Murray & Agnes Seasongood Foundation, which we put toward the organizer hired in October to lead and grow a Cincinnati Chapter.

Special Thanks to Major Donors: 

Murray & Agnes Seasongood Foundation: $5,000

Dan Zavon: $5,000 

Evan & Jackie Williams Family Fund: $4,000

Michael Cristal: $2,500

Grace Leng and Scott Ellis: $1,500

Mike Ahern: $1,000

We're inviting every Ohioan who supports Ranked Choice Voting to participate in a day-long Strategic Planning Conference to collaborate on a plan to make Rank the Vote Ohio more authentically grassroots and membership-driven. We are looking to hire a professional facilitator to guide us through a democratic process to propose reforms to our organization and bylaws for consideration by our Board. We'll also provide catered meals for all who join.

Come meet Ranked Choice Voting supporters in-person to build relationships and community. This will be informal and will help us get to know each other in preparation for our Strategic Planning Conference on March 8.

Tentative schedule:

11:30am-12pm: Arrivals and mingling

12pm-1pm: Catered lunch

1pm-4pm: Games and activities

RSVP below by February 6 so we can confirm your meal:

Lifelong Ohio resident and Rank the Vote Ohio speaker, Chris Anderson will discuss the benefits of ranked choice voting and how it can improve Ohio's elections if implemented. RSVP to join in-person here or watch the livestream on YouTube here.

https://www.cleveland.com/community/2024/08/cleveland-heights-charter-remains-under-review-with-sights-on-next-years-ballot.html

https://www.cleveland.com/community/2024/08/lakewood-charter-review-commission-recommendations-include-ranked-choice-voting.html

We're looking for volunteers to help table and talk about RCV at the Stow-Munroe Falls Chamber of Commerce Business & Community Expo. Let us know if you can join anytime between 10am & 4pm.

In response to growing grassroots enthusiasm for bringing Ranked Choice Voting back to Cincinnati, we're launching a local chapter with the help of a new organizer, and we're inviting the rest of Ohio to join virtually via Zoom to learn more about local efforts in Cincy and lessons for other cities.

Thanks to a generous grant from The Murray and Agnes Seasongood Good Government Foundation, Rank the Vote Ohio has hired Mary Favier as a part-time organizer specifically focused on Cincinnati. Mary is a new graduate from the University of Cincinnati and was recommended to us by Cincinnati's Charter Committee, where she previously served as an intern and is well-versed in Charter's history of helping Cincinnati use RCV to achieve Proportional Representation.

Please join us to welcome Mary and talk about how we can help support RCV in Cincinnati!

https://www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices/voices-ranked-choice-voting-a-proven-improvement-to-the-way-we-vote/327XKFLVJ5HUTIEMCFIFOUAD3I/

https://www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices/voices-as-riverside-considers-charter-amendment-meaningful-conversations-more-important-than-ever/BKEY4H2JHBHMBCLF2G4MI5YG6M/

https://www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices/what-is-ranked-choice-voting-and-can-it-improve-our-elections/V6XTUJYZ2FAA5L4BYQDFBJDQMQ/

https://www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices/marcano-ranked-choice-voting-offers-clear-advantages-and-faces-stiff-opposition/ZN5ONFF4V5D2LG3ZLIAHRR2U3E/

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/12/29/out-of-state-conservative-organizations-lead-charge-to-ban-ranked-choice-voting-in-ohio/

news.wosu.org/show/all-sides/2023-11-07/the-future-of-voting-in-ohio

cleveland.com/news/2023/10/former-sen-rob-portman-ranked-choice-voting-other-primary-election-reforms-could-reduce-political-polarization.html

wvxu.org/show/cincinnati-edition/2023-10-09/history-ranked-choice-voting-ohio-theresa-gavarone

ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/09/29/ohio-senators-consider-election-law-changes-to-close-primaries-prohibit-ranked-choice-voting

cleveland.com/opinion/2023/09/can-ranked-choice-voting-catch-mice-gene-krebs.html

nbc4i.com/news/your-local-election-hq/ohio-lawmaker-seeks-to-ban-ranked-choice-voting-as-republican-opposition-to-the-system-mounts

https://www.newsbreak.com/news/3107841539799-editorial-ranked-choice-feared