On October 6,GBH News hosted a debate on Question Three, the top-two initiative. The chief sponsor, Professor Danielle Edwards, spoke in favor. State Senator Lydia Edwards of Boston, a Democrat who is running for re-election, opposed it. Here is a link to the debate.

Neither debater mentioned that top-two keeps minor party candidates off the November ballot. That has what it has done in California and Washington, for races that have a candidate from both major parties on the primary ballot.

Proponents criticize the small number of candidates who run for legislature and U.S. House in Massachusetts. But no one pointed out that a major reason there are so few candidates are because the ballot access barriers are so steep. But Question Three does nothing to lower those barriers. Professor Allen came close to mentioning the ballot access barriers at minute 23, but she didn’t mention the petition barriers; she mentioned the hurdle that Democratic candidates must show some support at party meetings before they can run, even if they are capable of meeting the petition requirement.

Neither side mentioned that Question Three makes it more difficult for parties to obtain and keep qualified status.

Senator Edwards spoke in favor of legislative term limits, and in favor of Ranked Choice Voting. Professor Allen implied that she is in favor of Ranked Choice voting also.