Creating the essential messaging tools that define and strengthen a brand.

       Ranked Choice Voting/Final Five Voting  - Project Summary

The Challenge

Since its inception, Nevada has always carried out closed primary elections. In order to participate in a primary election, a voter in Nevada must be registered with one of the two major parties and can then only vote from the candidates put forward by their prescribed party. In the general election, it is nearly impossible for an individual from a non-major party to be elected from the ticket, further leaving voters disenfranchised and unrepresented in the election process. This concern has led organizations to enact change in several states, jurisdictions and counties, calling for open primaries and opportunities to have more than two candidates on the general ballot. After successfully bringing ranked choice voting to Alaska, the Institute for Political Innovation hired Argentum Partners to bring the initiative to Nevada, tasking us with qualifying the issue for the ballot, raising funds and support, ultimately passing it on the November 2022 ballot. This was the start of Nevada Voters First and the Better Voting Nevada Initiative.

Strategic Approach

In order to assess the viability of the initiative, our team coordinated a phone survey with Schoen Cooperman Research from April 2021 through April 2022. The survey was of registered Nevada voters to understand their feelings towards a closed primary system and final-five voting. From that study, we felt confident moving forward and created the Nevada Voters First PAC in mid 2021 to run the ballot measure. Immediately afterward, we created a plan and gathered a team to help us through each step of the process. This would include attorneys for a potential legal challenge, a signature gathering firm, a grassroots team to build out the coalition, a campaign manager, creative designers, a plan for fundraising and a strategy for messaging through each portion of the campaign.

Our team had to oversee the legal challenge and collection of over 141,000 signatures to see the initiative on to the November 2022 ballot. Once this was completed, we would launch a statewide campaign through stakeholder outreach and earned media and work collaboratively with a national partner on digital and paid media to pass the ballot initiative, guaranteeing its return to the 2024 ballot.

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The objectives for the team were to address media around the potential legal battle arising from the filed initiative for Nevada Voters First, build a coalition (fundraising & stakeholders) to support each stage of the initiative through passage, create assets (website, hand card, tablecloths, yard signs etc.) to support initial outreach initiatives, generate stories in each local outlet (Reno & Las Vegas ABC, CBS, NBC affiliates and print outlets) and ensure the initiative passed on the November 2022 ballot.

Results

Following the viability study and the filed petition, our team handled all the media relations around the legal challenge that was amassed against the initiative. This also included media addressing the opposition that had mounted against the initiative. Once the legal challenge ended, we successfully fundraised for and worked with a signature gathering firm to collect nearly double the required signatures and again, handled all the media around the process. At this point, with confirmation that the signatures submitted would qualify the issue for the November ballot, we were able to work proactively on a campaign media strategy which included creation of a logo (Nevada Voters First and then ‘Yes on 3’), brand guidelines and a media guide with talking points which were distributed to our grassroots team. From there, we simultaneously undertook several tasks including website and collateral creation, stakeholder outreach, initiative fundraising, social media management and strategic media outreach.

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While the initiative continued to garner attention through earned media and grassroots outreach, in-state fundraising was no longer sufficient, and the campaign needed a significant influx of funds in order to aggressively move forward. We had conversations with several national donors who were impressed by current efforts but concerned by the rapidly approaching November deadline and a lack of paid advertising, which would be key to inform the voters needed to move the initiative across the finish line. In order to address the time crunch, our team proactively sought the assistance of Winner Mandebach (WM), a national firm specializing in campaigns and a more than 90% win rate. After initial discussions, WM agreed to join the initiative and national donors agreed to support the effort, feeling confident in the combined efforts of our team and WM.

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WM immediately began building assets needed for a large-scale paid advertising campaign across all channels, including social media. This influx in advertising created a media frenzy and our team served as the communications manager and campaign spokesperson. We traveled throughout Nevada for media opportunities, roundtable events, stakeholder meetings, public forums and more.

On election night, our team was positioned in both Reno and Las Vegas for pending media requests and drafted various statements based on the outcome of the election.

Evaluation

Following a year-long viability study, our team proactively oversaw and managed the Better Voting Nevada initiative with primary efforts running from April 2022 through November 2022. The main goal of guaranteeing the initiative was added to the November 2022 ballot and then passed in the election was achieved alongside other impressive results. We successfully managed and quelled all negative media prior to the initiative being certified for the ballot while securing regional, statewide and national coverage. The initiative was covered by each ABC, NBC and CBS affiliate in Nevada more than five times throughout the campaign. The team also helped the team secure statements of support from both individual Nevadans, as well as famous local acts such as The Killers and Imagine Dragons. The main goal of guaranteeing the initiative was added to the November 2022 ballot and then passed in the election was achieved alongside other impressive results.