Marin Ranked Voting -

What will IRV do for San Jose on June 11

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:20:10 -0400

Start: 06/11/2009 - 12:00pm

End: 06/11/2009 - 1:15pm

Body:

The New America Foundation and Common Cause will sponsor a panel discussion about Instant Runoff Voting, featuring San Jose city councilors Sam Liccardo and Ash Kalra, on Thursday, June 11, from Noon to 1:15 p.m., in room 225 of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Public Library in San Jose. The event is free and open to the public and lunch will be provided. The library is located at 150 E. San Fernando Street in downtown San Jose. Parking is readily available in nearby city parking garages.

AB 1121 - Option to Use Ranked Voting in Local Elections

Fri, 15 May 2009 18:30:47 -0400

AB 1121, by Assembly Member Mike Davis (D-48), gives a limited number of local governments (i.e. cities and counties) the option to use instant runoff voting (IRV) and choice voting to elect their representatives. Charter jurisdictions already have the opportunity to use these improved electoral systems, but three-fourths of all California cities and counties are "general law" jurisdictions and are not able to use these systems. AB 1121 would begin to address this by allowing up to a maximum of 10 general law cities or counties to use ranked voting. This bill would not affect charter jurisdictons.

Please act now to help pass AB 1121. Click on the link below for details.

CfER AB 1121 Action Page

Last revised May 15, 2009

Personalized Full Representation for California's 21st Century

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:04:37 -0500

The authors will speak at the annual membership meeting of Californians for Electoral Reform on May 30. See here for details.

My Mark Paul and Micah Weinberg

November 19, 2008--California is a state of many distinct regions. To give citizens a voice on regional issues and to reinvigorate California's Legislature, the state's central institution of self-government, we propose Personalized Full Representation for the 21st Century (PFR21), a system of representation by means of regionally based legislative elections that will allow the state'scitizens to set the agenda for their regions and for the state as a whole. By reshaping the stage on which legislative politics is played out, California can make state government more attentive to regional issues and give its citizens a means of holding elected officials accountable for addressing regional problems. PFR21would break the partisan stranglehold on California's legislative outcomes and put the state at the forefront of political and policy innovation.

Video from Novato Soroptomist Sounding Board program on election integrity

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:26:23 -0500

On October 22, three members of the Marin County Election Advisory Committee discussed election integrity and voter confidence on the Novato community access program Sounding Board. The League of Women Voters of Marin County has a video transcript at

www.marinlwv.org/LWV_Election_Page/Election_Integrity.html

New Flash animation on choice voting

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:41:36 -0400

Be sure to check out this new explanation of choice voting from FairVote.

Last revised October 15, 2008

Video from "Bring Democracy Home" forum

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 20:27:25 -0500

We now have a video transcript of the September 15 forum at the College of Marin, "Bring Democracy Home".

Should Novato consider district elections?

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 18:35:17 -0400

September 7, 2007 -- The September 5 Novato Advance includes this article about a Novato resident who wants the city to switch from a council elected at large to one elected from districts.

District proponent Gary Scheppke argues that the current system results in too many council members from one part of town and too few from another part of town. He may well be right, but there's a much better solution to this problem.

Who We Are

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 02:59:59 -0500

Marin Ranked Voting is a nonpartisan group of Marin County, California, residents working to make government more representative of all citizens. We promote better methods of choosing public officials in which voters can rank candidates in order of preference.

Support These Campaigns

Sun, 23 Oct 2005 14:01:28 -0400

Ballot measure campaigns in Davis, Cincinnati and Memphis need your financial support now! From now until November 4, we urge everyone to contribute to these organizations. IRV is also on the ballot in Telluride, Colorado, and a charter amendment in Albany (just across San Francisco Bay from us) has implications for IRV.

Home Rule for Davis - Yes on Measure N

Two years ago voters in Davis approved of choice voting 55% to 45%. Now they have an opportunity to adopt a city charter that would make it possible for them to adopt choice voting. Without a charter, ranked voting would have to be put on hold indefinitely.

Contributions should be mailed to:

Yes On Measure N
c/o Stephen Souza
2424 Rodin Place
Davis, CA 95618

IMPORTANT: Davis city campaign finance laws require that the campaign report the name, address, occupation and employer of all donors contributing $25 or more. This differs from state law.

To find out more about the Davis charter and choice voting in Davis, please visit

Measure Y in Albany

Measure Y in Albany, in Alameda County, amends the city charter to provide for the mayor to be directly elected by the voters instead of appointed by the city council from among its own members. It also requires that the mayor be elected by a majority voting procedure, either two-round runoff or IRV. Given that three other cities in Alameda County have already provided for IRV in their charters, and the county now has (finally!) IRV-capable voting machines, it seems obvious that the city would choose IRV to avoid expensive runoffs.

Measure Y is primarily about direct election of the mayor and only secondarily about IRV. Since neither Californians for Electoral Reform nor Marin Ranked Voting has a position on direct election of local executive offices, we have not formally endorsed this ballot measure.

Yes on Issue 8 in Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio used choice voting from 1924 to 1957, one of 22 American cities to do so during this period. The repeal campaign succeeded in part by manipulating the racial fears of white voters. This fall, voters in Cincinnati have an opportunity to restore proportional representation in Cincinnati.

Financial support is urgently needed. Send checks and money orders to:

Better Ballot Cincinnati
830 Main Street, STE 900
Cincinnati, OH 45202

For more on choice voting in Cincinnati, visit:

Better Ballot Cincinnati

Yes on 5 in Memphis

FairVote's Rob Richie reported on October 23:

The instant runoff voting campaign in Memphis is in its final 12 days -- exciting effort that would implement instant runoff voting in the second largest city in the southeastern United States.

There's some real opposition, but advocates are doing a great job. There's a television ad posted on the campaign site featuring a county commissioner and head of the local NAACP. See the link here.

If you want to help secure a big win, send a donation to

Better Ballot Memphis
1035 Perkins Terrace
Memphis TN 38117

And time is of the essence!

To find out more about IRV for Memphis, please visit

Better Ballot Memphis

Yes on Question 202 in Telluride

The town of Telluride, Colorado will decide whether to use IRV in mayoral elections. So far there's no campaign website or fund raising appeal. For more see the writeup in the Telluride Daily Planet.