Ranked Choice Voting At Convention Picks Trump, Warren, Klobuchar

MANCHESTER, NH — The New England College Center for Civic Engagement's College Convention 2020 is a wrap and deemed a success by organizers with hundreds of students and voters getting up close and personal with presidential candidates and also experimenting with ranked choice voting. The five-day event, in its sixth year, hosted 10 candidates in person or by video, as well as a number of politicos, historians, journalists, and others. Wayne Lesperance, a political scientist and vice president for Academic Affairs at New England College, said the convention is always an indicator that New Hampshire is in "the home stretch" of its first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

"This Convention was a success top to bottom — from candidate and campaign engagement to the number of student registrants," he said. "We had broad representation by students from across the country. That really speaks to the unique nature of the New Hampshire primary."

For the first time, organizers experimented with a multi-round ranked choice voting ballot, with New England College students acting as Election Day workers.

Republican voters "firmly backed" President Donald Trump while voters choosing a Democrat ballot were more divided, according to organizers.

"After several rounds of working through the ranked choice process, we found that voters stressed a preference for Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar," said Nathan Shrader, the director of the American Studies Program at Millsaps College. "In an actual ranked choice election, rounds of ballots would continue to be counted until a majority was reached by one candidate. Our experiment only allowed us to pursue several rounds of counting. Yet we are pleased with the opportunity to demonstrate how ranked choice voting works and have hopefully made hundreds of young political activists more aware of the promise that this exciting system offers for the future of our country."

Lesperance added face time between attendees and the candidates "was a major force in swaying votes for our attendees."

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, former U.S. Rep. John Delaney, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Klobuchar, former Gov. Deval Patrick, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh, former Gov. Bill Weld, and Marianne Williamson all made appearances at the event.

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