Marin Ranked Voting

May 14, 2008--This week the campaign for IRV for City of Los Angeles received major new endorsements from the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce and former mayor Richard Riordan. These come soon after a new position statement from the Los Angeles League of Women Voters.

L.A. Area Chamber Statement on Instant Runoff Voting for the City of Los Angeles

Source: L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce

May 13, 2008

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce supports Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) for the City of Los Angeles, which would combine primary and runoff elections by allowing voters to rank candidates and use the rankings to elect a majority winner. Already used in many other cities throughout the state and nation, IRV makes government more efficient and eliminates costly runoffs. The L.A. Area Chamber believes that IRV is good government policy which will save candidates and tax payers tens of millions of dollars in the years to come.

IRV will save money for candidates, who can now spend all their resources on a single race focused on the merits of their platforms, rather than bashing opponents. This new campaign dynamic will bring new candidates and their issues into the local debate, leading to more competitive races for important local government posts.

IRV will save local government money. Runoff elections are extremely expensive, costing the City of Los Angeles more than $9.2 million since 2001. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) have spent a combined $30.9 million administering runoff elections since 1993. These costs will continue to escalate, and the L.A. Area Chamber believes these tax dollars can be better spent on other pressing needs in Los Angeles.

The decision to endorse IRV for the City of Los Angeles was reached by the Chamber’s Board of Directors at a meeting on May 8, 2008.

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The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of business in L.A. County. Founded in 1888, the Chamber promotes a prosperous economy and quality of life in the Los Angeles region. For more information, visit http://www.lachamber.com.

Media Contacts:
Gwen Oldham, 213.580.7532
Jessica Schmidt, 310.552.4177

Letter from former mayor Richard Riordan

Source: Better Democracy for Los Angeles

May 2, 2008

Gautam Dutta, Esq.
Deputy Director, Political Reform Program
New America Foundation
3435 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 2724
Los Angeles, CA 90010
Re: Instant Runoff Voting

Dear Mr. Dutta:

I strongly support a critical electoral reform that will save Los Angeles millions of dollars and boost voter participation: Instant Runoff Voting (IRV).

Currently, our City uses an expensive, two-round election system. If no one receives a majority in the general election, the top two finishers advance to a separate runoff election. Last May, an abysmal 6 percent of registered voters took part in a runoff election (for the Los Angeles Community College District). That election alone cost our taxpayers $5 million – which could have been used for affordable housing, transportation, and other pressing needs.

IRV will consolidate the general and runoff elections into one single, consolidated election. In this manner, IRV will help our City make headway with two major challenges: fiscal hardship and low voter turnout. By eliminating a separate runoff election, IRV will save our City $8 to $9 million per election year. Furthermore, by reducing the number of elections, IRV will both empower voters and reduce voter fatigue.

To date, a wide variety of jurisdictions have adopted IRV, including San Francisco, Oakland, Minneapolis, and Santa Fe. After San Francisco adopted IRV, San Francisco voters preferred IRV over the previous two-round system by a margin of 3 to 1.

Let us strengthen our democracy – and set an example for the entire nation. I urge the City Council and Mayor Villaraigosa to take all necessary steps to adopt and implement IRV.

Sincerely,
Richard Riordan

LWVLA advocates instant runoff voting (IRV)

Source: League of Women Voters of Los Angeles

Our League now advocates using Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) for single-winner elections. At our February unit meetings, we concurred on the issue with the League of Women Voters Pasadena Area (LWVPA).

Concurrence (agreeing with a position) is far simpler than developing a consensus, because with concurrence members vote yes or no on a statement or position that's already been adopted by another League. The IRV concurrence built on the work of the Pasadena Area League, which had extensively studied election methods.

Votes (89% in favor) and discussion at the unit meetings showed overwhelming sentiment among LWVLA members that LWVLA should concur with the LWVPA position on IRV.

IRV provides a majority winner in a single election, unlike the two-round runoff system our city elections use now. (The two-round system consists of a first round "primary" followed, only if no candidate got a majority, by a separate runoff election between the top two vote-getters.) In an IRV contest, voters rank candidates they choose to vote for, in preference order (1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, and so on), on single ballots. In this way, voters communicate – with no need to cast more ballots – whom they would like to vote for if their top choices are eliminated before a runoff.

When counting begins, each ballot counts as a vote for its voter's first choice. If a candidate has a majority of the votes, that candidate is the winner. If no candidate got a majority of first choice votes, however, one candidate (the one who has the fewest votes) is eliminated, and everybody's ballot now counts as a vote for their top choice who is still in the election. In practice, if the ballots have been sorted into piles by 1st choice candidate, most of the ballots stay where they are, but each ballot from the eliminated candidate's pile is moved to the pile for its voter's next choice. Once again, if a candidate has a majority of the votes, that candidate is the winner.

And once again, if no candidate has a majority, a candidate (the one who now has the fewest votes) is eliminated. And once again, each ballot counts for its top choice who is still in the election. And once again, in practice, this only involves moving ballots from the eliminated candidate's pile. The process continues, counting each ballot for its top choice who is still in the election — if your top choice candidate is not eliminated, your ballot always counts for that candidate — until a candidate does get a majority of the votes in the election. The LWVPA position we concurred with is to have "Advocacy of Instant Runoff Voting for single seat elections" as part of the League's local program. This position covers singlewinner elections for all branches of government. It is broader than the League of Women Voters of California (LWVC) position supportive of IRV, because the LWVC position only refers to executive offices. (As such, we could not use the LWVC position to advocate using IRV in elections for seats on the Los Angeles City Council, which is a legislature.)

The concurrence process began last year, when the topic of IRV emerged as a priority from the program planning meeting. At the Annual Meeting, members approved making IRV, and possible concurrence with LWVPA on the issue, part of our program.

Each unit meeting was treated to a mock IRV election for "Muppet City Councilmember" from the imaginary 16th District. The mock elections used a set of prevoted ballots, to which attendees could add their own ranked-choice votes. Ernie the Muppet won all the mock elections (by as little as one vote!), although Ms. Piggy received the plurality (but always less than 40%) of first choice votes.

The new position is timely. On the same day the LWVLA Board accepted the concurrence, the Los Angeles City Council Rules and Government Committee began considering a long-awaited report by the City Clerk, which recommends using IRV to fill Council vacancies. Now that IRV is being considered in Council, our League will advocate using it for all city elections.

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David Holtzman
IRV Program Chair & Westside Evening Unit Chair

Page last revised May 14, 2008