By Pete Martineau

May 24, 2006

This week Sacramento's C.K. McClatchy high school became the first California high school to use ranked choice voting to elect its student government.

Voting was Monday, May 22, and the manual count was Tuesday and Wednesday. Almost 1,240 votes were cast in 10 classroom and Associated Student Body single member office contests.

Eight of the 10 races had more than two candidates and voting was by instant runoff voting (IRV). In two of those races candidates who would have won a plurality election were eliminated by instant runoff ballot transfers.

Californians for Electoral Reform (CfER) provided written instructions for manually counting an instant runoff election. The tellers found them easy to understand and use.

CfER members first briefed the McClatchy student government and its advisor on May 5th. They then observed preparations for the election such as ballot preparation, the voting itself, and the count.

Jill LaVine, Sacramento County Registrar of Voters, watched Wednesday's count. She asked several questions, and showed an understanding of IRV.

The student elections committee members were enthusiastic about ranked choice voting, and they and Mr. Tim Douglas, the faculty student government advisor intend to make it a permanent part of student government by-laws. To find opportunities for more school's ranked choice voting adoption, Mr. Jerry Houseman, board member of the Sacramento City Unified School District, has offered to introduce CfER members to principals of other Sacramento high schools.

It was not difficult to convince McClatchy advisors and teachers to try ranked voting and adopt it. Contact your local high school and see the student government advisor about them using ranked voting. CfER and Fairvote have materials to use. Some high schools will have student elections in the fall, most will have elections in the next few weeks.

Pete Martineau is Vice President for Legislation of Californians for Electoral Reform.