WE NEED YOUR HELP!

IMPORTANT NEW ELECTORAL REFORM BILL - SB596 - NEEDS YOUR HELP!

SEE BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW YOU CAN HELP:

Update on our recent "call-to-action" for electoral reform bill proposals

First, let me thank all of you who helped us with two important electoral reform legislative proposals over a month ago. We asked people to call, write, or fax various legislators to help us show sufficient support to get our bill proposals introduced by a member of the California Legislature. And guess what - our efforts paid off!

We originally were trying to get two different bills introduced - one to create an independent Citizens' Assembly to recommend the best electoral system for the California Legislature, and the other to allow local governments to choose the best electoral system for their needs. We weren't able to get someone to introduce the Citizens' Assembly bill, but we did find a legislator willing to author the second bill, which we think of as a "home rule" bill for electoral system choice. It is now known as SB 596 and was introduced by State Senator Debra Bowen.

What is SB 596? Why do I care?

The purpose of SB 596 is to enable local governments to use improved electoral systems such as Instant Runoff Voting and Choice Voting. This bill will allow all local jurisdictions, including cities, counties, school districts, and special districts to use either Instant Runoff Voting (for single-winner elections) or Choice Voting (for multi-winner elections) to elect their governing bodies.

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) ensures that the winner of a single-winner election has the support of the majority of voters in a single election, eliminating the need for a costly runoff election. It also eliminates vote-splitting and spoiler effects, both of which undermine the public's confidence in the system. Finally, IRV helps promote positive, issue-based campaigns with less negative campaigning because candidates will seek 2nd and 3rd choice votes.

Choice Voting is a similar ranked system as Instant Runoff Voting, only designed to work when a jurisdiction is electing multiple winners, such as for a city council. Choice Voting allows voters to rank their preferences, like with IRV, and this also tends to promote positive campaigns like it does with IRV. In addition, Choice Voting ensures that the majority group continues to receive the majority of representation as with current at-large election methods, but also provides the minority a chance to win fair representation, something which is often denied with straight at-large plurality voting. Given many ethnic minorities often fail to ever win representation in cities and counties across California, the option to use Choice Voting could be a significant help to these groups to have their issues represented.

How You Can Help

SB 596 will be reviewed in the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee on April 6th, and it's important that this committee gives it a thumbs-up.

We would like to have individual letters or faxes or emails of support go to Senator Bowen and to other members of the committee before next Weds April 6.  If you can only write one letter, please send it to Senator Bowen, unless one of the other members happens to be your actual representative.  If it's not too much trouble, email me a copy of your letters to robd@smc4er.org.

Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee Members:

* Senator Debra Bowen *
State Capitol, Room 4040
Sacramento, CA 95814
Voice: (916) 445-5953
Fax: (916) 323-6056
Senator.Bowen@sen.ca.gov

* = BEST CHOICE IF YOU CAN ONLY WRITE ONE LETTER

Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) State Capitol, Room 3067
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-5581
Fax: (916) 327-2187
jim.battin@sen.ca.gov

Senator Joseph Dunn State Capitol, Room 2080
Sacramento CA 95814
(916) 445-5831
Fax: (714) 705-1586
Senator.Dunn@sen.ca.gov

Senator Kevin Murray State Capitol, Room 5050
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-8800
Fax (916) 445-8899
Senator.Murray@sen.ca.gov

Senator Charles Poochigian State Capitol, Room 5087
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-9600
Senator.Poochigian@sen.ca.gov

Senator Gloria Romero State Capitol, Room 313
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 445-1418
Fax (916) 445-0485
Senator.Romero@sen.ca.gov

Talking Points re: SB 596:

1) Cities and counties deserve the opportunity to use the electoral systems that best address their unique needs. Diverse communities need the opportunity to use proportional voting systems (such as Choice Voting) to ensure fair representation.

2) Giving general law jurisdictions the right to improve their election procedures would open up valuable new opportunities for them to achieve more representative democracy and better government. Allowing local jurisdictions to demonstrate improvements to their electoral processes allows the whole state to benefit and see what works best.

3) Our current voting systems suffer from a variety of deficits, including vote splitting effects, spoiler effect, and unequal representation. Spoiler and vote splitting effects can allow a candidate to be elected where the majority of people would prefer a different candidate. Our Winner-Take-All electoral systems ensure that a significant percentage of the population is denied representation, and this ultimately undermines the political system, fracturing the electorate rather than building a more cohesive society.

4) The lack of uniform election code support for these improved electoral systems is a significant obstacle to cities and counties and other jurisdictions that want to use these systems, and SB 596 addresses this need. In addition, City and County officials and/or local Registrars are not put in the difficult positions of having to make up such procedures themselves.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding the bill or this request for help.

Best regards,