The University of Wisconsin Law School is hosting a conference Friday on fusion voting, which allows major and minor parties to nominate the same candidate on a ballot. The gathering (“Parties, Power and Possibility: Revisiting Fusion Voting in Wisconsin,”) is timely. A lawsuit pending in Dane County Circuit Court seeks to overturn Wisconsin’s fusion voting ban, which has been in effect since 1897.
Protect Democracy, a nonprofit group whose mission is to fight authoritarianism, defines fusion voting as “the right of political parties to nominate whoever they choose in partisan elections, including the possibility of one candidate being nominated by multiple parties.” The process was once common, according to the group, and two states — New York and Connecticut — allow some version of it.
The advantage of fusion voting, says the group, is that “Multiple parties can nominate the same candidate, allowing voters to choose the party that best matches their values. The totals of each party line are added to determine the winner.”…