On February 16, the Maryland State Senate that handles election law bills heard testimony on SB 292, which would implement Instant-Runoff Voting for all partisan elections in the state. The lead sponsor is Senator Paul Pinsky, who authored the ballot access reform back in the 1990’s. All witnesses who appeared in person testified in favor. The Committee will vote sometime later this month.
Our organization, FairVote — The Center for Voting and Democracy, provided some of the testimony in favor of the bill to the Senate Committee on Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs (which has an election law sub-committee). The bill is also supported by a number of other groups in Maryland who were also there, in person, to offer their support. SB 292 has two other sponsors, Senators Brochin and Grosfeld, in addition to Senator Pinsky (who spoke eloquently in favor of adopting IRV). We hope that the committee will give the bill a favorable recommendation so that it can be brought to the floor of the Maryland State Senate for a vote.