When I was going door-to-door, talking to voters — and asking for their #1 votes — during my 2015 campaign, I was surprised by how many residents asked me to explain: 1) how our ranked choice voting system works, and 2) who else they should rank on their ballots. To answer the first question I’ve made a short animated video that I hope will clarify how ranked choice voting works. The video and a few FAQs are posted on a new page of this website: “About our ranked choice voting system.” I hope you’ll take a moment to watch the video and share it with friends, especially newcomers who may be voting for the first time in Cambridge.

It’s still a little early for me to answer the second question — we won’t know the names of all the candidates on the 2017 City Council ballot until mid-August, when the nomination papers are certified by the Election Commission. There could be two dozen or more candidates for the 9 seats on the Council! This number of candidates can be overwhelming to voters who haven’t been following the campaigns closely. (If you’ve found your way to my site it means you are doing your pre-Election Day homework. Go to the head of the class, and thank you for taking the time to learn more about what I stand for.) Closer to Election Day I will make some suggestions for who else you may want to support. As Memphis’s former mayor AC Wharton used to say to constituents when he was running, “I can’t help you if I ain’t there” — it’s true that I will need your #1 vote to get re-elected, and it’s also true that I can’t be as effective at advancing our shared goals if I don’t serve with a majority of likeminded colleagues.