But the Green Party nominee won an endorsement from the Marin Peace and Justice Coalition, a progressive organization that boasts a mailing list of 1,500.

Coalition members were evenly split between Woods, a Novato writer, and front-running Democrat Jared Huffman, whose liberal stands on many issues are aligned with many coalition members, said Jim Geraghty of San Rafael, one of the group's leaders.

Woods won the endorsement because of her strong support for "ranked voting" election reform where voters, instead of casting their vote for one candidate, rank their choices. Instead of a plurality where a candidate with the most votes wins, "ranked voting" factors in voters' second, third and fourth choices.

If a candidate fails to win a majority in a multi-candidate race, "ranked voting" would eliminate the last-place finisher and count "second choice" votes that the candidates received.

That process would continue until one candidate wins a majority. There is a possibility that a front-runner who finishes short of a majority, could lose after the second- and third-pick votes are counted.

The change could open the door wider for third-party candidates by reducing defensive voting, in which voters vote for who they think can win, instead of the candidate with whom they agree.

Geraghty said the members used ranked voting to reach their endorsement.