Legislative Action

	Californians for Electoral Reform	PO Box 128, Sacramento, CA 95812 916-455-8021
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Legislative Action

In 2009, CfER sponsored two bills in the California legislature that made significant progress, but did not reach the governor's desk on this session.

Local option to use ranked voting -- AB 1121 by Assemblymember Mike Davis (D-48) would allow up to ten cities or counties to use ranked voting systems to elect their representatives. The bill would allow these jurisdictions to use Instant Runoff Voting for single-winner elections or Choice Voting (a ranked voting system similar to IRV) for multiple-winner elections, during a ten year period. It would also add to the state Elections Code the guidelines and procedures registrars and equipment vendors need to count and report ranked voting elections. Visit CfER's page on AB 1121 for historical info that will aid our next try.

Ranked ballots for overseas vote-by-mail voters -- AB 308 was introduced by Assemblymember Paul Cook (R-65) on February 17. It would require that overseas voters -- including active members of the military -- be able to use ranked ballots when voting in elections that might lead to a runoff. When the first and second rounds of a two-round runoff election occur close together, it can be difficult for absentee voters located overseas to receive their second-round ballots (which aren't printed until the first-round results are known) and return them in time to be counted. Only a small number of California cities have second rounds within 45 days of the first round, but a larger number have second rounds 60 to 70 days after the first. Learn more on our archived AB 308 action page. Assemblymember Cook has said that he will reintroduce this bill in 2011.

CfER's current bills build on our earlier work in the Legislature:

Local option -- The path to AB 1121 started with AB 1039, introduced by Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-14) in 2003. In 2005, Senator Debra Bowen introduced SB 596, coauthored by Hancock. Both bills would have allowed all California cities and counties to adopt alternative voting methods, not just those with charters like San Francisco. In 2007, the legislature passed AB 1294, by Assemblymembers Gene Mullin (D-19) and Mark Leno (D-13), only to have it vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Overseas vote-by-mail -- AB 308 is identical to AB 1662, carried by Assemblymember Cook in the 2007-2008 legislature. AB 1662 got all the way to the Senate Appropriations Committee, the last stop before final passage. Click here for our archived AB 1662 action page.

Here is a summary of future legislative proposals:

IRV for recall elections - if the governor or other officer is recalled, his or her replacement is elected in a wide-open "most votes wins" election - and that winner is very likely to not have many votes. IRV is the perfect fix. Here is a draft of a bill. Here is a good example letter.
IRV for special elections - A bill, introduced by former Assembly Speaker Hertzberg in 2001, would use IRV to fill vacancies in the U.S. House or state legislature. It did not make it through its committee, but it may be possible to reintroduce it in a future session. Our volunteer lobbyists worked with Hertzberg's staff and others to develop and promote the bill. We have a more complete draft. We are also working to build a coalition in support of the bill.
Multi-member districts for US House seats - A longer-term priority is federal legislation allowing use of multi-member districts in the election of a state's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. This would permit the use of a proportional method within each district. Bills in the 107th and 106th Congresses could have accomplished this.
We would like to see an amendment to the California constitution that would allow for the use of a full (proportional) representation method to elect the state legislature.
IRV for statewide executive offices - here is a rough draft (pdf) of a ballot measure that would implement IRV statewide. We have another version of such a bill.

How to take action

Read the above information about the bill(s) you are interested in.
Find out how to contact your Assembly member and Senator.
Using the sample letter for help, write a letter and fax or mail it to your chosen legislators in Sacramento.
Please consider a followup call to Sacramento or a visit to your district office. Ask us or send a note to an election reform email list to find people to join you on your visit.
Ask civic groups you're associated with to send letters of endorsement to the Elections Committee (or comments via the above link to the comment form).
Please email us to let us know what you've accomplished.

We need your help, and it will make a difference!

Reference info

The California Legislative Counsel's website contains up-to-date versions of all bills being considered in the legislature, along with votes and other status information for each bill, and a form that can be used to contact legislators about each bill. The current government and election codes also appear there. Maps of assembly, senate, and house districts are in the Berkeley Statewide Database.

The Assembly and Senate websites can help you find your legislator and the membership of the committees on elections in each body. Because these committees act on behalf of the entire state, it is justified to send letters to any or all committee members. Most of them aren't very familiar with IRV, so contacting them will help!

The California Elections Code is here. If you want to view the whole thing (as of 2001) as a single file for easier searching, it's here.

Here are links to the League of Cities and its board, as well as the Association of Counties and its board. The support of these groups would be of great help to any election reform legislation.

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