Someone is trying to bring ranked choice voting to Lakewood--here is what you need to know.

On April 10, Rank the Vote Ohio announced the launch of a campaign to bring ranked choice voting (RCV) to the city of Lakewood. Cleveland VOTES sat down with Christopher Bindel, the person behind the new Rank the Vote Lakewood campaign. Christopher is a lifelong Lakewood resident and local politics enthusiast. Keep reading to learn more about the campaign and how you can get involved. We also explain the basics of RCV in case you aren't familiar with the term.

Cleveland VOTES: So are you from Lakewood?

Christopher Bindel: Yeah. I have lived in Lakewood my entire life. I went to Roosevelt, I went to Harding, and then I went to the high school, which oddly enough was actually the same three schools my grandfather went to! Class of 2003.

CV: Sounds like you have lived in Lakewood for a long time and have a strong attachment to it. Have you also been civically active as a resident?

Christopher Bindel: Even starting in high school, I was civically active. I followed what was happening with City Council and stuff like that.  And when I went off to college, when I would come home in the summers, I would go to all the council meetings while I was home. When I graduated from college, I ended up getting involved with the Lakewood Observer and covering the Council meetings for them. And I did that for seven and a half years.

I have also gotten onto a couple boards and commissions. I was on the Citizens Advisory Committee for four years, and then I got on to the Board of Zoning Appeals, which I was on for nine years. And I chaired it for four years, but I termed off of that in December of 2022. At that point I just didn’t have anything lined up and was enjoying spending time with my kids knowing I would eventually get involved with something else.

Christopher Bindel [He/Him], founder of the Rank the Vote Lakewood campaign

CV: How did you come to be an advocate for ranked choice voting (RCV)?

Christopher Bindel: I’ve been wanting to do something more civically focused. I heard about RCV a number of years ago through the This American Life podcast, and I had read some books that touched on the subject too. So after this last very polarized election, it was just kind of like…I think RCV is really the only thing that is really going to help us get to a position where we can fix these problems. It's not going to happen immediately, but it's never going to happen at all if we don't fix the polarization issue. And RCV is the first thing that we can do to fix the polarization issue. 

And I was like, there's got to be some group who's working on that in Ohio. And so I looked it up and found Rank the Vote Ohio. And I reached out to them and met with Michelle Jackson, who's the local representative for Rank to Vote Ohio here in Northeast Ohio. And I got onboarded as a volunteer.

CV: And how did your new efforts to get RCV in Lakewood happen?

Christopher Bindel: It just so happens that during the same time, and this actually started last summer, Lakewood happened to be going through a Charter Review Commission, which it does every 10 years. And the Commission looked at the charter and then recommended ranked choice voting to City Council. Council then decides whether or not to put RCV on the ballot, and then the people will decide whether or not to make the change to the charter. And that's why it's important to educate the public about RCV, because they're the ones who are going to end up voting on it. Hopefully we can get it on the ballot next year!

CV: What are the benefits of bringing RCV to Lakewood?

Christopher Bindel: If we do RCV, we can eliminate our primaries. Instead of doing a primary to get three people down to two for the general, we can just have three people in the general, and we save all that money for the primary. So in the case of Lakewood, one problem that we're solving is the cost. 

There are some other benefits, too.  For instance, with RCV there's less polarization. People running for office will be less negative in their campaigns because they want to get ranked as highly as possible by voters, even if they're not the first choice. So I do think that it could help in those regards.  

CV: Are you currently the only official person involved in the campaign or are there others?

Christopher Bindel: There's no one else really assigned at the moment. Michelle Jackson is in charge of Northeast Ohio for Rank the Vote Ohio, and with her blessing I took on Lakewood myself and got the campaign started. I’m sure there are other ranked choice voting fans in Lakewood, though, so hopefully they hear about the campaign and want to get involved.

CV: What do you hope to achieve in the next six months or the next year with the campaign?

Christopher Bindel: So, what I'm focusing on right now is getting the word out.  And the way I'm planning on doing that is somewhat through social media, but also going to as many community events as possible, hosting a table. I’ll have some other volunteers with me at these events to reach out to the crowds and talk about RCV. There will also be some petitions put out for both Rank the Vote Ohio and Rank the Vote Lakewood that people can sign to show their support.

But also at each event, what I plan to do is have something that's somewhat connected to the event for people to actually vote on using RCV. So, for example, at Lakewood’s Meet the Trucks event I am probably going to bring some of my kid’s toys, like different toy trucks for people to rank, and I'll have little fake ballots they can fill out. And this way the parents and the kids can both participate. 

A ballot from the "Rank Your Beers" event hosted by Rank the Vote Ohio at Sauced Taproom in Lakewood in September of 2024.

CV: Do you think that the more RCV is accepted and implemented in cities, it would lead to more people running for office? 

Christopher Bindel: Yeah. In fact, there have been studies that have shown that RCV increases diversity of candidates. That includes more racial minorities and women as well as more parties and viewpoints. So instead of just having a Republican and a Democrat run like we always see, you could also get more third parties or independents running. 

And because RCV eliminates the idea of “spoiler votes,” if you're someone who likes that third-party person better, you don't have to worry about choosing them first because if they get eliminated, you still have the second choice that you picked.

CV: As you probably know, there are efforts from our state legislature to try to ban ranked choice voting through Ohio Senate Bill 63. How might this potentially impact your work?

Christopher Bindel: I am very aware of that. I submitted testimony against it. It's my hope that it doesn't pass. Honestly, looking at how it's written, I don't think it could. I don't see it successfully weathering a challenge because of the mechanism that it uses to punish municipalities. To clarify, it doesn't directly "ban" ranked choice voting. What it does is if your city or county passes ranked choice voting, the state of Ohio keeps all your local government funds as a punishment.

Rank the Vote Ohio has continued to speak out against it. The same thing happened last year, and it ended up being tabled and nothing happened. I'm hoping that's what happens this year, but we'll see. But I have to keep doing what I want to do, and if they move forward with their plan, then we focus on that when it happens.

RTV Ohio has created a petition for speaking out against OH Senate Bill 63, which would punish cities who use RCV for local elections. You can sign the petition here.

CV: What would you say to someone in Lakewood who wanted to get involved right now at this point in the campaign? What could they do?

Christopher Bindel: I mean, first would be to follow our socials or email me (rankthevotelakewood@gmail.com). I would say start there. You can also visit our webpage on the Rank the Vote Ohio website.

CV: Would it be helpful if Lakewood residents reached out to their council people and said: "Hey, we hear that ranked choice voting is something you're talking about, and I think it's a good idea!” 

Christopher Bindel: Absolutely! 

Still confused about RCV? That's ok. We recommend watching this video from FairVote: