By Bob Richard

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Our first meeting on ranked voting in Marin on Tuesday, July 26 was attended by eight local activists and two guests from Californians for Electoral Reform, founder Jim Lindsay and Sonoma County coordinator Edward Mendoza.

Here are my notes.

(1) We will meet again on Wednesday, August 24 at 6:30 pm, at College of Marin, Student Services Building (same as last night), hosted by the College of Marin Campus Greens. Please publicize this meeting to everyone you know who is interested in ranked voting.

(2) Here is my (completely unofficial) understanding of what we accomplished.

(2a) We agreed to start working on the following right away.

*** Begin promoting ranked voting for College of Marin student government elections.

*** Schedule speaker training workshop provided by Californians for Electoral Reform (CfER).

*** Meet with office holders already known to support IRV to get their thoughts on local strategy.

*** Schedule educational presentation to Marin chapter of Democrats for America (DFA).

*** Work with county registrar Michael Smith to establish a citizen's advisory committee on election administration (and then get ourselves represented on it).

*** Contact interested organizations about representation at our August 24 meeting.

(2b) We discussed a lot of other possible activities. Here is a partial list (I doubt that my notes include everything).

*** Seek endorsements of SB 596 from the Board of Supervisors, city councils, individual office holders, Joe Nation, Carole Migden.

*** Make educational presentations to local organizations. For example: Marin Grassroots Leadership Network, Marin Peace and Justice Coalition, Social Justice Center of Marin.

*** Make educational presentations to local affiliates of statewide organizations. For example: Common Cause (endorses SB 596), CalPIRG (endorses SB 596), League of Women Voters (endorses SB 596), National Organization of Women, etc.

*** Promote ranked voting for Dominican University student government elections.

*** Plan educational campaign around the 6th assembly district Democratic primary next year.

*** Make educational presentations to high school/college classes.

(3) Everyone interested in ranked voting should join this email discussion group:

California Instant Runoff Coalition

You will be asked to describe yourself to the moderator--please mention that I referred you so the moderator will not suspect you are a potential spammer.

If you haven't done so before, please check out these sites:

www.fairvote.org

www.davischoicevoting.org

CfER's new and improved website (www.cfer.org) will be launched in a few weeks.

Bob Richard is Marin County Coordinator for Californians for Electoral Reform.