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!

FEBRUARY UPDATE

GREAT NEWS ON THE NATIONAL POPULAR VOTE COMPACT

What is the National Popular Vote Compact (“NPV”)?  

It is basically a way to work around the Electoral College.  When it becomes law in enough states in the USA, then it means our presidents will be elected by the national popular vote.  This will happen without having to change the constitution.  
How the NPV Works (Officially, it is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact or NPVIC. But just calling it the “NPV” for short.)

What does CfER have to do with it?  

CfER endorsed the NPV many years ago.  It was adopted in California in 2011.  Because it is already law here, that is, California is a member of the NPV Compact, CfER doesn’t talk about it much.

So what’s the great news?

The Colorado House of Representatives and Senate passed the National Popular Vote on Wednesday February 20th.  The bill now goes to Governor Polis, who has publicly stated that he supports the bill.
After the bill is signed, Colorado will be the 13th jurisdiction to enact the National Popular Vote bill.  The enacting states will then have 181 electoral votes – 89 away from the 270 needed to bring the bill into effect. 

How can you help?

If you have any friends or relatives in other states, perhaps you can tell them about the National Popular Vote movement.  The web site is here: The National Popular Vote.  They also accept donations.

MORE EXCITING NEWS

Soon, we will be able to tell you about a new Home Rule bill in the California Senate, introduced by Senator Ben Allen of Redondo Beach.  It will allow all jurisdictions to use RCV if they want to.  Right now, only cities that have their own charters can use RCV.  We expect this to get to the governor’s desk.  More news coming up in March!

DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 NEWSLETTER

Happy New Year, everyone!  And what better way to celebrate the new year than a newsletter from Californians for Electoral Reform?

A GREAT YEAR FOR SERIOUS ELECTION REFORM

2018 was a great year for the movement for RCV and PR.

The huge win in Maine — where RCV was used statewide with great success — is historical and is reverberating around the country.  U.S. congressional seats were decided for the first time in U.S. history using RCV elections.  See this article for more: USA Today Article on Maine’s Success.  (Fun facts on Maine’s election: opponents of RCV and parts of the media said that less than 50% of the voters would rank their ballots, and it would cost the state $1,500,000.  In fact, 87% of the voters ranked their ballots, and the additional cost was $100,000.)
* Santa Fe used RCV for the first time, very successfully.  See Sante Fe’s RCV Election.* Memphis voters reaffirmed RCV.  It will now likely be used in 2019 for the first time in Tennessee.  See Memphis Voters Defend Election Reform.
* Nationally, five cities acted to use RCV in their next elections, and six Utah cities committed to using it in 2019 (although they could change their mind before April). If all 6 were to use RCV, that would double the number of cities using RCV from the current number of 11.* The four Bay Area cities using ranked choice voting had very smooth and successful elections,  and their next ones will be with a ballot allowing up to 10 rankings instead of a limit of 3 rankings. More San Francisco voters cast ballots for mayor with RCV then for governor or senate without RCV in the June elections.
* Fairvote held a hugely successful RCV Activist Summit in Oakland (see below), and many other regional summits were held around the country.* The Fair Representation Act was introduced in the House of Representatives, got some great press, spurred education efforts, and began to gain some momentum.  It will be reintroduced in the next session of congress.
* The PR/IRV movement got more and more good press and endorsements, including the New York Times, conservative columnist David Brooks, and many others.   The New York Times editorials on RCV in June and backing the Fair Representation Act in November each was a full page.  Other papers editorially backing RCV this year included the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, and the Economist.
All told, it was a fantastic year!  

ELECTORAL REFORM QUIZ

How many countries use a form of Proportional Representation for their national legislatures?A. 136B. 120C. 103D.   94E.   74Highlight the white space after the colon for the answer:  The answer is D.
Source: Wikipedia article on Proportional Representation

ELECTORAL REFORM SUMMIT HELD IN CALIFORNIA

Fairvote California and the national Fairvote held a West Coast RCV Activist Summit December 8th and 9th in Oakland.  It was a tremendous success, with over 100 activists showing up to learn how to organize, how to educate about RCV and PR, how to have an effective digital strategy, etc.  In addition, there were speakers and guests at the summit and reception like congresswoman Barbara Lee, Oakland mayor Libby Shaaf, council-members, school board members, and governmental election staff people.   People came from all over California, and about 20 people came from out of state.  Almost half the attendees were women, and there were lots of Latino and Asian participants.  

Very special for CfER was the love shown for our group, and new activists who joined at the Summit.  Our own Steve Chessin and Paula Lee were recognized with Champions of Democracy awards for lifetime achievement for their many years of hard and effective work for PR and IRV.
Overall it was a tremendous boost for the movement in California.  Thanks Fairvote, and thanks to everyone that was able to attend.

PR ENDORSED BY THE NY TIMES!

The New York Times had previously endorsed Rank Choice Voting.  This time, they endorsed proportional representation (although they didn’t call it that). 
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/10/opinion/house-representatives-size-multi-member.html

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

First, my apologies for the lateness of this newsletter; I was the bottleneck. There’s a lot of good content in it.

Second, Happy New Year! We hope to see a bill introduced this year that would allow general law cities the same right to use ranked choice voting that charter cities have, similar to the one that we had in 2016. (If at first you don’t succeed, ….)

Finally, if you are also a member of the League of Women Voters, you have an opportunity to support a concurrence statement that will be considered by all local Leagues in California in the next few months.

Please watch for your local League’s program planning meeting date and attend to support the proposal to “Support election methods at each level of government that encourage participation, are verifiable and auditable, and enhance representation for all voters.”

If you aren’t a member of the League, but know someone who is, you can tell them about the proposal and ask them to attend their local League’s program planning meeting to support it.

If you have any questions, or would like more information on the concurrence statement, contact Paula Lee, LWV Sacramento County, at paula.lee@comcast.net.

Thanks,

— Steve Chessin, President

WHO ARE WE?

Californians for Electoral Reform has been working for Proportional Representation and Ranked Choice Voting for over 20 years, and we continue to work on these issues actively.  We are an action-oriented group, with chapters and contacts around the state, working in the State Legislature, and working in many local communities, promoting and educating about PR and RCV.

We have led successful campaigns for RCV in San Leandro, Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley, and spoken to thousands of people.  RCV is now much more well known than it was 20 years ago, and is being seriously considered in several jurisdictions around the state.  We have twice got legislation through both houses of the legislature and to the governor’s desk.  We are well known in Sacramento and in electoral reform circles, and have a lot of respect in Sacramento and statewide.

JOIN US!  You can join for free.  You can also send in a little (or a lot of) money to help the movement if you can.  If you have time and energy you can get involved in a campaign or education work.  If a friend sent you this newsletter, and you want to get our quarterly newsletter and monthly updates, you can do that too, at no cost.  Click here to join the movement for PR and IRV!

NEXT MONTH

In February, we’ll be bringing you a brief update on electoral reform.  

— CfER Staff