EMPOWERING
VOTERS AND
DEFENDING OUR
DEMOCRACY

WHY CONNECTICUT?
Because we are uniquely positioned to make Instant Runoff (aka Ranked Choice) Voting a reality in Connecticut. On Sept 7, 2022 the sitting Governor of Connecticut pledged publicly that he would introduce and advocate for passage of Ranked Choice Voting legislation in January 2023 if re-elected to a new four year term.

ABOUT US

Currently, our singular focus is passing Instant Runoff (aka Ranked Choice) Voting legislation in Connecticut.

Members of our board of advisors and their allies were instrumental in persuading the current Governor of Connecticut, if re-elected, to introduce such legislation in the next legislative session of Connecticut’s General Assembly. Our current goal is to build on that initial success.

Where Instant Runoff Voting has been adopted, it has increased the number of viable candidates, increased voter participation, reduced extremism, improved the character of campaigns and assured that the winning candidate had the support of the majority of voters and not merely that of the largest or most active minority.

Our initial focus is adopting Instant Runoff (aka Ranked Choice) Voting in Connecticut.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION

LET THE MAJORITY RULE: ADOPT RANKED CHOICE (AKA INSTANT RUN-OFF) VOTING (“RCV”)

We all believe in “majority rule”. But that is not how our current system works when there are more than two candidates. Ranked Choice Voting (also known as Instant Run-Off Voting) allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference and ensure that the winner is the candidate with a majority of voter support.

RCV achieves the same result as run-off elections and saves money and time, gives independent and third-party candidates a greater chance to win, allows voters to support their top choice without fear of ‘wasting’ their vote, eliminates the risk that a vote for the candidate a voter most wants will help elect a candidate the voter does not like, and forces all candidates to try to appeal to voters beyond a narrow partisan base.

Learn more about Instant Run-Off or Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and how it works, from our friends at FairVote, here.

PASS OUR RCV BILL

Here is a document that includes proposed legislation to implement Ranked Choice Voting in elections in Connecticut.

NEWS

A HUGE STEP IN CONNECTICUT

Why is Ranked Choice Voting suddenly a relevant issue
in the Connecticut gubernatorial race?
It’s the result of years of hard work.

Sept, 9th 2022 - by Andrew Yang

PRESS RELEASE

Today, Connecticuts Griebel-Frank party announced
their endorsement of Governor Lamont for reelection
praising commitment to electoral reforms
and ranked-choice voting.

Sept, 7th 2022

Danielle Chesebrough

is the Town of Stonington’s First Selectman. She was first elected in November, 2019 and is now in her second term as First Selectman. Previously, she served as an elected official on Stonington’s Board of Finance and was also a member of the Town’s Economic Development Commission. She was, and remains, an Unaffiliated voter. Before being elected as First Selectman, she worked for nearly a decade for the United Nations Global Compact. In her role she facilitated collaboration between companies around the world and institutional investors who were signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment, as well as co-organized the UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative. Her main area of focus was on bringing together different perspectives to create more transparent and sustainable capital markets. Danielle has a B.A. in Political Science from Clemson University and a Master’s Degree in Social Work, with a focus on Policy and International Studies, from the University of Connecticut.

Jim Cusick

is a retired litigation partner at King & Spalding. Before joining King & Spaulding, he was Chief of Litigation at Morgan Stanley and a partner at Kirkland & Ellis. He became a member of the SAM (Serve America Movement) Connecticut Task Force when it was formed in early 2019 by the late Oz Griebel and has been an active advisor on electoral reform issues and strategy since then.

Laura Del Savio

serves as the Sr. Communications Strategist for the Forward Party. She is a former educator with an M.A. in Secondary Education, and an M.S. in School Administration. Previously, she was Deputy Campaign Manager and Communications Director for a U.S. congressional campaign. A resident of Connecticut, Ms. Del Savio is working to bring choice, accountability and solutions to elections through her involvement with democracy reform measures including ranked choice voting and nonpartisan primaries. She is a frequent contributor to the Forward Party blog on issues related to democracy.

Monte Frank

Monte Frank, Chair of Griebel-Frank for CT and a member of the Board of Advisors of the (c)4, brings extensive Connecticut political experience to the leadership of the campaign team. He ran for Lt. Governor in 2018. He is the co-chair of the litigation department at a major Connecticut law firm and a former President of the Connecticut Bar and the New England Bar. A well-known advocate and activist on the issue of gun violence in the wake of the tragedy of Sandy Hook in his hometown, he is passionate, articulate and vocal about the need for RCV in Connecticut and across the nation. He has made frequent radio and TV appearances on the issues and had his opinions published in the state’s major newspapers and national publications.

William Guenther

is the Chairman, CEO and Founder, Mass Insight Global Partnerships, Executive Chairman and Founder, Advanced Cyber Security Center. A serial not-for-profit entrepreneur in the public policy space, his work has driven education reform in Massachusetts and has created public-private partnerships that drive economic development and competitiveness in Massachusetts and the New England region. Mr. Guenther is also the Founding officer, American Compact/Connecticut Compact, a 501(c)3 nonprofit education organization building consensus on the most pressing challenges and opportunities that face our country and the state of Connecticut, with a special focus on economic and climate change agendas, and community engagement through election reform. Guenther graduated from Harvard College cum laude in 1972 and the New York University Law School and was admitted to the New York Bar in 1975.

Maryfrances Metrick

is a founder of Ivy Hill IRBD, a consulting firm focused on advising alternative investment firms on limited partner engagement and capital development strategy. Previously, Ms. Metrick was a Senior Managing Director at Blackstone and Centerbridge. Over her career, she has been involved in raising over $50bn of capital for alternative funds, and has relationships with institutions throughout the US and Europe. Ms Metrick graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with honors, received a JD from Villanova Law School and was a 2017 fellow at the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative. Ms. Metrick is a member of the Forward Board, the Millennial Action Project, the Board of Consultors of Villanova Law School and former board member of Women’s World Banking. She is a senior advisor to AltamarCam, a pan European investment firm.

Scott Muller

is a retired litigation partner at the international law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. At various points in his career, Mr. Muller has served as a law clerk on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, a law clerk to a federal appellate judge, a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University and at NYU School of Law. He was the Senate confirmed General Counsel of the CIA from October 2002 to July 2004. Scott was a founder of SAM (Serve America Movement) in 2016 and served as its Chair from May 2018 to April 2020 when he was succeeded by David Jolly and became a Vice Chair. Mr. Muller is a resident of Stonington, Connecticut and has been active with the SAM affiliated Griebel-Frank for Connecticut and with SAM and related electoral reform activities in Connecticut since 2017. Scott holds a B.A. in History from Princeton (‘71) and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center (‘75).

Henry Rowland

leads the Connecticut Task Force of Veterans For Political Innovation and currently serves as an unaffiliated member of the Griebel Frank for CT State Central Committee. He served over 19 years in the military as an Infantry Officer, deploying to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Rowland is currently the lead attorney for the Afghan Legal Relief Project at the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants. Mr. Rowland also serves on the Advisory Committee for Safe Passage and Resettlement for Global Friends of Afghanistan and has previously been a volunteer for Lawyers Without Borders. Henry is a graduate of the University of New Haven and UConn School of Law and has been admitted to the Connecticut Bar since 2012. He believes that the dysfunction that exists in our politics is a systems problem that can be remedied by structural reforms that fundamentally change the incentives of candidates, voters, and public officials.

Javier Serra

is a first-year student at Harvard College pursuing an A.B. in Social Studies or Government. He is also a member of the Harvard Rugby team. He currently serves on the Griebel Frank for CT State Central Committee. As co-president of the Student Policy Initiative Club in high school, he advocated alongside his peers on local and state issues, focusing on electoral reforms in Connecticut. Mr. Serra connected his club members with Serve America Movement (SAM) due to their shared interest in ranked choice voting and open primaries, and he coordinated grassroots messaging engaging other students. Javier enjoyed wrestling, where he was captain, and baseball during his high school years. As class president, Mr. Serra spoke at his local Board of Education meetings each month to advocate for certain policy changes and address his community at large. Mr. Serra is passionate about electoral reforms to help politics transition away from division and towards real problem solving. Mr. Serra believes in putting people before politics.

LET'S BUILD A BETTER FUTURE TOGETHER