Sunday Speaker – Better Elections & Better Representation with Ranked Choice Voting – Kazz Fernandes

Sunday Speaker Topic: Better Elections & Better Representation with Ranked Choice Voting - Kazz Fernandes

Plurality systems foster some of the most unconventional problems that shouldn’t even exist: expensive runoffs, "strategic" voting where people abandon their favorite, and campaigns that get uglier every cycle. Such problems aren’t unique to any one place, but there’s already a fix on the table and Tempe is ready to champion it.

Join Better Ballot Arizona for a look at the Better Elections for Tempe Act, a citizen initiative that would bring Ranked Choice Voting to Tempe's Mayoral and City Council elections. We'll walk through exactly how RCV works, conduct a live demo with real numbers, bust the top myths that you may hear people gossiping about, and show what cities that already use RCV have to say. You'll even get to try filling out your own sample ballot yourself to get a taste of the benefits that RCV brings!

Bring your curiosity, bring your questions, and stick around after to signup as a volunteer or sign petition.

Bio:

Kazz Fernandes is an Arizona-based electoral systems reformer, community organizer, and nonprofit leader, committed to building long-term civic infrastructure and advancing equitable representation. He currently serves as the Executive Director of Voter Choice Arizona and Better Ballot Arizona, where he leads local and statewide efforts to implement open primaries, and ranked choice voting (RCV) as well as defending reform pathways and direct democracy through ballot measure campaigns.

Kazz is also the co-founder of BlackNet AZ- a nonprofit focused on increasing connection and collaboration within Black Arizona's ecosystem and working to close resource gaps for Arizona's Black leaders. His emphasis on innovative problem-solving and systems thinking is rooted in his engineering background and commitment to social justice.