Election Reform Never Tasted So Good at SoCo Creamery

As the nation braces for the upcoming election, SoCo Creamery will host its own election starting Friday (October 26) at 5pm and running through Sunday (October 28). At SoCo, you can vote early, often and your vote will make a difference.

SoCo will sample six free new ice cream flavors. You vote on your favorites. As you exercise your right to vote, you will experience Ranked Choice Voting, an innovative reform that could transform politics in America.

“Goodness gracious, we need to try something different than what we’ve got now,” says Erik Bruun, owner of SoCo. “We are absolutely delighted to work with Voter Choice Massachusetts to add some fun and good taste to the vitally important, if normally dreary, topic of electoral reform.”

Meghan Molinari of Voter Choice Massachusetts introduced the idea of an ice cream election to SoCo as a way to spread the word about ranked choice voting (RCV). With RCV instead of just voting for one candidate, you can rank them in the order you prefer them—first choice, second choice, third choice and so on.

In our current system you can win with a plurality, just the most votes. With RCV, you need a majority, more than 50% of the vote, to win.

“The goal is to improve our elections,” Molinari says. “We shouldn’t be blaming the voters or the people who step up to run for office when it's the voting system that's broken.”

The event at SoCo is designed to help illustrate a process that can be difficult to explain but clear with a good example.

“When you use food it becomes a lot more fun for voters,” Molinari says. “We naturally rank things every day as we go through life. If your favorite ice cream isn’t at the store, you don’t leave the store, you fall back on other choices. With rank choice voting, you can express your true preferences for who sits in office. Right now you have to vote strategically, sometimes for what feels like the lesser of two evils. You should be able to vote your conscience.”

RCV has long been discussed in academic circles, but has recently enjoyed a surge of interest in the United States. Though cities and towns around the U.S. have used RCV on a smaller scale for years, Maine was the first place to pass it statewide in November of 2016. Maine used ranked choice voting successfully for the first time in June in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.

The November 2016 national election prompted reformers in Massachusetts to take up the cause here in the Commonwealth, where the state ranks 50^th out of 50 states in terms of competitive races. Massachusetts has the least number of candidates challenging incumbents for state offices, according to Voter Choice Massachusetts.

Among the benefits of ranked choice voting are higher voter turn out, more people being able to run for office, and more civilized campaigns, Molinari says.

“I like that it encourages positive campaigning. If you are running for office with RCV, you have to campaign on policy instead of just trying to knock down your opponent. You don't want to ostracize your opponent's voting base since you still want to be their second or third choice,” Molinari says.

This weekend’s slate of candidates crafted by SoCo Creamery's own Ice Cream Maker, Megan Alberg is as follows:

· Confetti Cake Batter. A yellow cake batter ice cream with all-natural rainbow sprinkles.

· Peach Cobbler. Peach ice cream with homemade savory dough pieces and a peach ripple.

· Blueberry Cheesecake. Freshly baked cheesecake with Vermont blueberries blended throughout.

· Plum Streusel. A sweet cream ice cream with plum ripple and streusel topping pieces.

· Cranberry Orange Zest Sorbet. A tangy cranberry sorbet blended with orange zest.

· Bartlett’s Cider Donut Ice Cream. Sweet cream ice cream with Bartlett’s cider donuts mixed in.

Voting will start Friday at 5 and last throughout the whole weekend at the SoCo scoop shop at 5 Railroad Street, Great Barrington.

“We want to make it like a real election,” Bruun says. “We expect a few write-in flavors, but no absentee ballots.”