Massachusetts Protects Traditional Voting and Counting [OPINION]

The voters of Massachusetts rejected ballot Question 2 on Election Day. The slick campaign was wrong from the beginning and they never understood the voters.

Question 2 was an insult to the voters of Massachusetts. Without realizing it, obviously, the big money backers and the activists pushing a new way to count ballots were telling the voters they have been wrong since the day they started voting. When they said there was a better way to count votes, they were calling into question the results of all previous elections in Massachusetts.

It isn't smart to tell people who actually go to a town meeting that they are wrong and their ancestors were wrong.

The people pushing rank choice voting are smart and accomplished. But they were missing a key component in the coalition they put together: someone in a high-ranking elected office who might lose an election under the new system.

Bill Weld and Deval Patrick were both Governors of the Commonwealth but they aren't anymore. Neither tried to implement this new system when they were at risk of losing their elected job. Both came to the realization that the system was broken when they failed to get elected to federal office.

There are other supporters of changing the way we count votes who also failed to get elected under the traditional system.

The big money from out of state didn't make the ballot question more palatable to the folks who actually live and vote in the Bay State.

Chris McCarthy is the host of The Chris McCarthy Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Contact him at chris.mccarthy@townsquaremedia.com and follow him on Twitter @Chris_topher_Mc. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.