On the evening of Monday, May 1st, London made history.

That’s right, with 10 votes in favour and only 4 opposed — and with only hours left before the legal deadline — London City Council voted to abandon the first-past-the-post voting system and switch to ranked ballots.

Did you know that when the Oscar winners are announced this coming Sunday, ranked ballots will have played a decisive role in deciding who wins?

In fact, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences uses ranked ballots in two ways.

Check out event details here.

You are invited to a special Town Hall meeting on Monday, March 6 at 7:00pm, to discuss RaBIT’s plan for moving forward. The event is being held at Metro Hall.

At the Town Hall meeting, you’ll have the opportunity to hear a brief update on ranked ballots in Toronto, and our plans for our next steps. More importantly, we’d like to hear your ideas on how best to mobilize our fellow Torontonians and get city council back on board with ranked ballots.

We hope you'll join us on March 6 to catch up & share your ideas for the future of ranked ballots in Toronto!

View event details - everyone is welcome!

Photo Credit: By The original uploader was SimonP at English Wikipedia - Taken by SimonP in April 2005 - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1911689

RaBIT Is Recruiting Two New Volunteer Members of Its Board of Directors - Apply Now!

RaBIT is upping its game as we continue and expand our fight to bring ranked ballots -- and the more fair, diverse, inclusive, and friendly politics they can help create -- to Toronto’s municipal elections.

As we take this next step and work to further expand the network of ranked ballots supporters across the whole of Toronto, we need to increase the size of our team.

On Wednesday, 14 December 2016, Toronto City Council voted - by the slim margin of 22 to 17 - against a motion to have city staff investigate the possibility of creating an independent citizens’ reference panel to examine whether Toronto should switch to ranked ballots for future elections.

What a disappointing couple of weeks it’s been in Toronto for voting reform. On December 1, we went into Toronto’s Executive Committee full of hope that we were about to take the next step towards ranked ballots in Toronto. Instead, the committee voted against a motion to have city staff investigate creating a citizens' reference panel--a representative and independent resident-driven panel--to examine whether Toronto should switch to ranked ballots for future elections. Two weeks later, City Council voted against a similar motion by a margin of 22 to 17. 

That’s right--after declaring last fall that they didn’t reject ranked ballots, but that they only wanted to make sure public consultation would be mandatory for their adoption, the Executive Committee & Council rejected … public consultation. 

On Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, Toronto City Council’s Executive Committee will consider a staff report focused on electoral reform. This report says a lot. But it’s especially important for you to know what it says about ranked ballots.

Join us on Wednesday, October 5 at 6:30 PM for a fun evening at a local North York pub that will include special guest and RaBIT founder Dave Meslin along with a unique Ranked Ballots themed activity.

Please RSVP here.

On September 16, history was made in Ontario! That's the day the Government of Ontario officially passed the regulations that make it possible for any one of the province's 444 municipalities to switch from our broken first-past-the-post voting system to using a ranked ballot.

Now the question is, which city will be the first to take the plunge?

Please join us on Tuesday, September 20 at 7:00 PM to learn about the Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto, Bill 181 and draft regulations allowing introducing ranked ballots for municipal elections in Ontario. Please RSVP here.