We are a group of Bedford residents working to bring Ranked Choice Voting to Bedford city elections.

Current Local Voting System:

Right now, Bedford municipal elections for Select Board, Board of Assessors, School Committee, and others are conducted via a two step process, which involves an annual town caucus to nominate candidates, and the annual town election where voters elect who will fill the available offices for the specified term.

In the town caucus, nominees are chosen by floor vote, with the top two nominees who receive the most votes being automatically placed on the ballot for the following election. Additional candidates can pull nomination papers, requiring 50 verifiable signatures, to be placed on the ballot alongside those nominees chosen at the Town Caucus

Proposal for New Local Voting System:

Once all nominees have been placed on the ballot, each voter would rank the candidates in order of preference. The ballot would appears as usual, except that next two each name will be multiple bubbles. The bubbles will be labeled 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and so on. The voter would fill in one bubble for each candidate, ranking them in order of preference. Once all ballots have been cast, they would then be counted according to the process described in the How it Works section.

If you would also like to see Ranked Choice Voting in Bedford, please sign the online Petition for Local RCV

To stay updated on this effort, email us at info@Bedfordrcv.org