By Bob Richard

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

The November 30 meeting was attended by six members. We heard reports
on the following:

*** Conversations with Marin Registrar of Voters Michael Smith on
November 17 and 21 were very productive. He did dwell on a variety of
other election issues that complicate the lives of registrars and
compete with IRV for attention and resources. He also talked about IRV
in terms of administrative complexity. But he (1) offered to consider a
Board of Supervisors resolution that contains language intended to meet
the objections of the California Association of Clerks and Election
Officials (he is a board member of CACEO); (2) offered to help start
conversations between CfER activists and other registrars who have
objections to ranked voting; (3) offered to have us review equipment
RFPs before they go out to prospective vendors; (4) seemed willing to
participate in brainstorming ways to make implementation and
administration easier for election officials; and (5) said he thinks IRV
is a good concept. He noted that the registrar in San Francisco, John
Arntz, is now saying that IRV is "quite do-able" once the initial
implementation is over.

*** A member of the Marin Democratic Central Committee (MDCC) has
expressed interest in having MaRV give a presentation to the MDCC.

*** At a meeting on November 17 with two leaders of the League of Women
Voters of Marin County, Anne Layzer and Perry Newman, we learned that we
will be able to make a presentation to their membership, and might also
be able to get something published in their monthly newsletter.
Endorsement of our statement supporting local option is a live
possibility.

*** After a representative of the Marin County Libertarian Party
attended our November 15 meeting, we are scheduled to make a
presentation to their quarterly meeting on January 10.

We also discussed the following.

*** Status of efforts to contact several members of the Board of
Supervisors.

*** Approaches and material for use in meetings with members of the
board of supervisors, including a meeting on December 2 with Susan
Adams. (The meeting was very productive.)

*** Holding a public forum in which office holders, especially the
supervisors and registrar, would be invited to speak (both pro and con).

*** Organzing a mock IRV election in high schools in parallel with the
mock election sponsored by the Marin County Youth Commission and the
Youth Leadership Institute of San Rafael.