Buffalo pushes to add voting reforms to city charter

| Spectrum News Staff |

Buffalo's city charter revision commission is examining whether to move up its timetable to get voting reforms on the ballot this fall.

At a special meeting Wednesday night, commission members discussed voting changes that citizens want added to Buffalo's Constitutional document. They say citizens are asking for ranked choice voting, open primaries and reducing candidate petition signatures to be voted on in November.

Without any opposition

To get those proposals in for Election Day, the commission says they would need to agree to those recommendations and submit them by July 15.

"From 2001 until now, 52% of the time, a councilmember runs without any opposition in the primary, and 62% of the time without any opposition in the general election," said voting reforms supporter Paul Wolf. "I think a lot that has to do with how hard it is to get on the ballot."

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