Voice for Democracy
Newsletter of the Northern California Citizens for Proportional Representation
January-March 1999
1999 - The year for a
great resolution
Let us resolve to make 1999 the year that electoral reform begins to be heard on the local, state and national political agenda.
Clearly,
the first step in this process is to renew our membership of NCCPR. To do this,
just respond immediately to the renewal request.
Send your subscription ($25) to: Northern California
Citizens for Proportional Representation, c/o Initiative Computing, 6422 Irwin
Court, Oakland, CA. 94609
Just for fun - a PR QUIZ
EASY: What
are three major benefits of PR?
MEDIUM:
What is the definition of PR?
HARD: There
have been two elections that the Northern California PR movement
has
initiated recently. When and where were
these elections? What were the
propositions
called? What was the vote?
Answers below
New year’s Greetings
from THE
PRESIDENTS
NCCPR activists entered 1999 confronted by national
paralysis of the Republican and Democratic Parties wrestling each other for
ascendency. They stumble - buffoon-like
- around the parameters of the political ring, grasped in chock holds that
permit little oxygen to the brain and NO rational thought. They are holding the country, even the
world, in a vaporous thrall. Are we
unable to act till the beasts succumb?
Of course
not! We must walk on by and not waste
our time on this spectacle. We are on the path of electoral reform. Proportional Representation will offer the
country other choices, new values and candidates; at last changing our political
purview.
The NCCPR has
been hard at work creating this path.
We are devising a second, more succinct, "Proportional
Representation: Qs and As" brochure to be used in situations where people
do not need as much information as contained in the original.
In San
Francisco, the NCCPR local is working with the San Francisco Electoral Reform
Coalition to introduce legislation this November calling for Instant Run-off
Voting for all single seat elections.
We are
networking with various organizations from the CA National Organization for
Women to the Unitarian Universal church to introduce PR and IRV and educate the
membership.
Jim Lindsay is
holding training sessions for activists throughout Northern California on
"PR basics" and "Speaker development." Training will continue throughout the year
with more topics and training leaders.
Do check
out our website at http://fairvotencal.org.
See the article in this issue of the newsletter describing what's
available at the site (page two)
Remain part of
this crucial work! Keep up your
membership and actively work with NCCPR members in your area. Do not return to the spectator sport of "politics-as-usual, version
1999." Stay on this path which
will provide CHOICE for our country!
Have the two behemoths expired yet?
Barbara Blong and Betty Traynor, Co-Presidents,
NCCPR.
What’s happening in your neck of the woods by Jim Lindsay, V.P. Local Chapters
LOCAL CHAPTER REPORTS
The San Francisco chapter continues to work on promoting
IRV. And it seems that their work is
beginning to bear fruit. Tom Ammiano,
the President of the Board of Supervisors says that IRV is a
"no-brainer," and wants it on the ballot this November. Very exciting. Call Coordinator Wayne Shepard for more info (415/681-2580, pauldebits@juno.com).
Alameda County CPR is investigating a campaign for IRV in Berkeley, PR for the
Berkeley Rent Board, or IRV for Oakland.
With Steve Hill (CVD's West Coast Coordinator) making high level
contact, a very powerful community group called ACORN has expressed interested
in pursuing democratic reforms like IRV. We've look at other interesting
possibilities, but narrowed it down to these 3 for the short term. Contact Dave Greene (510/841-6761, david@diana.lbl.gov)
or Jim Lindsay (510/527-8025, jimlindsay@jerel.com) for info.
Jim Stauffer (408/432-9148, jstauffer@igc.org) has
committed to organizing a new chapter in Santa Clara County. Ray Yahr (707/833-6996, ryahr@vanstar.com)
will be organizing a new chapter in Sonoma County. Both plan to have made substantial progress
within a couple of months.
Contact me at 510/527-8025 or jimlindsay@jerel.com, if
you'd like to co-coordinate or you have ideas on how to get a chapter started
in your area.
Jim Lindsay, VP, Local Chapters
NCCPR Website
Needs Visitors! by Steve Willett
As the "webmeister" of the Northern California CPR
website I would like to encourage CPR members and friends to visit the site to
see what's there and to give us some feedback about what you find.
If you haven't visited us yet we can be reached by pointing
your favorite web browser at
"http://fairvotencal.org". The site has much material on it about
Proportional Representation, Choice Voting, and other related topics. Some of the things you will find there
include:
· information about CPR, the
organization, including short bios of the members of CPR Board
A list of FAQs
(Frequently Asked Questions) about PR and alternative voting mechanisms
A glossary of terms
related to voting systems
information about 1996's unsuccessful
"Prop. H" campaign in San Francisco and 1998's successful "Prop
F" campaign in Santa Clara County.
links to other PR web
sites around the world
a page for PR
activists containing resources to help you talk about and campaign for voting
reforms.
Coming soon is a calendar of events of interest to CPR
activists, in which we will announce upcoming events and report on past events.
We are most interested in hearing what you think of the
site. If you want to contribute
material for the site, by all means do so!
Please e-mail me, Steve Willett, (or my professional alter ego,
Initiative Computing) at "icinfo@initcomp.com" with your material,
your comments on the site, or suggestions of what you would like to see added.
MEASURE F
- lessons to be learned
(This is an abbreviated version of an article by Steve
Chessin submitted on 1/10/1999)
There were two phases to Measure F. The first was the Charter Review process,
getting the County to put some electoral reform measure on the ballot. The second was the campaign to get it
passed. Final results:
Yes157,223 (53.9%) No 134,248 (46.1%)
WHAT WE DID RIGHT:
- Used an experienced, well-known, credible point person.
- Went to every CRC meeting (except one), both evening and
day-time, and to every Governance Subcommittee meeting
- Got my Supervisor to get me on the "full packet"
mailing list.
- Did not fight the Governance Subcommittee when they
rejected PR as "too complicated" but were willing to consider IRV.
- Sought advice from a Supervisor staff person on how to
work with the CRC. .
- Supplemented the consultant's report with campaign expense
data he was not willing to supply.
- Worked with the CRC on resolving the cost-of-upgrade
issue.
- Lobbied each Supervisor (through their staff) when the CRC
decided to recommend IRV.
- Asked at least three people to attend the Supervisor's
public hearing since I couldn't; one showed
- When asked to draft the ballot argument by the CRC Chair,
got help from other NCCPR members with it.
- Got appointed as an Advisory Board Member of the Center
for Voting and Democracy, so I could use that in signing the ballot
argument. The CVD affiliation also
increased credibility with the media.
- Helped the County Counsel with the Impartial Analysis, by
providing her with a first draft, and reviewing and responding to all her
subsequent drafts.
- Got the Libertarian Party to publically rebuke their chair
for signing the argument against, and used that in the rebuttal to it. - Put a
phone number in the rebuttal.
- Ran a free advertisement every week in the alternative
weekly "messages" section.
- Sought (and received) endorsements from well-known people
and organizations, as well as from newspapers.
Got balanced endorsements and organizations included us in their slate
mailers.
- Got www.smartvoter.org to link to our web site.
WHAT WE DID WRONG (OR COULD HAVE DONE BETTER):
- Did not have the definition of IRV in the charter
amendment itself
- Waited until the ballot arguments were finished before
going for endorsements, which meant we were too late for some organizations.
- Did not respond to the rejected argument against, when we
could have possibly defused that person and prevented his later blind-side
attacks.
Lots of “should have” s
---:Should have
contacted a political consultant for advice early in the game;contacted the
paid slate mailer people earlier so we might have gotten on some of their
mailers; had people do more letters to the editor; organized some postcard
campaigning; organized better email campaigning; tried to get on KPFA, where
they allow one-sided discussions; done some targeted phoning of likely voters
from Green, Libertarian, and Democratic parties; gotten more people involved.
WHERE WE WERE LUCKY: Chuck Reed (CRC chair) liked it! The San Jose Mercury News (major daily
newspaper) chose to endorse us.
WHERE WE WERE UNLUCKY: The Registrar of Voters spoke against
us at the Supervisor's public hearing. The San Jose Metro (local alternative
weekly) chose to oppose us.
QUIZ ANSWERS:
EASY: What
are three major benefits of PR?
Here are 6
benefits -- you answered correctly if you got three of them:
· Provides for majority rule with fair
minority representation.
Gets rid of gerrymandering.
Would open up the system to
alternative parties.
Would greatly reduce the effect of
big money on elections.
Would result in more positive
election campaigns.
More and better candidates would run
for office.
MEDIUM: What
is the definition of PR?
Proportional
Representation (PR) means using an election system in which the final results
of the election are in proportion to how people voted. So if a party won 40% of the vote, they
would win 40% of the seats, while if they won 10% of the vote, they would win
10% of the seats.
HARD: There
have been two elections that the Northern California PR movement
has
initiated recently. When and where were
these elections? What were the
propositions
called? What was the vote?
· In November of 1996, Proposition H
would have established PR for San Francisco. It lost 44-56%, but garnered almost 100,000 votes in just a three month
campaign.
In November of 1998, Measure F was
on the ballot in Santa Clara County. It won, 54-46%. It allows IRV to be used, when the Board of Supervisors decides
they want to use it. The measure states
that it is only in effect once they upgrade their election equipment to
equipment that can handle IRV.
Voice for Democracy is published by Northern Californians for
Proportional Representation.
Our web site at http://fairvotencal.org has more up-to-date information.
Please submit articles/letters for publication to: c/o Nat Lerner, Voice for
Democracy, 68 Penzance Street, Salinas, CA. 93906 or e-mail to
NL0916@sprynet.com.
Voice for Democracy
Northern California CPR
P.O. Box 128
Sacramento, California 95812