March/April 2019 Update

HOME RULE BILL INTRODUCED
California Senate Bill #212 has been introduced, and was passed by the Senate Elections Committee April 23rd.  This bill would allow ALL cities in California to use Ranked Choice Voting or two-round runoff if their citizens vote to use it.  Currently, only charter cities are allowed to use RCV, but most cities don’t have their own charters, so they are not allowed to use RCV.

With your help, we can get this bill to Governor Newsom’s desk.   Please help! First, click this link to Find Your Senator.
After you put in your name and address, it will show you who your senator and assembly representatives are. Click on the senator’s link.  This will send you to their web page.  On that page, there should be a Contact link, probably on the top of the screen. Click that link, which should open up a form for you to send a message to them. 

What can you say?  It doesn’t have to be long.  It could just be a request for them to support and co-sponsor SB 212.  If you want to say more, here are one or more points you can raise:* SB 212 does not impose anything on any jurisdictions — it just expands their rights.* The citizens of that city would have to vote to use RCV or two-round runoff elections.* Currently, most cities are forced to use a horrible election system: “plurality-at-large”, unless they become a charter city.  Most cities do not want to become charter cities.* Plurality voting is oppressive to minorities, making it very hard for them to win seats because whichever groups have the most votes can win all the seats.* Plurality voting also results in under-representation of women on city councils.

* RCV is currently used in more than ten cities in the USA, including four cities in California.

When this bill becomes law, it will be a great day for California!