Voice for Democracy

Newsletter of Californians for Electoral Reform

Fall 2005

Chapter Roundtable

In the last issue of Voice for Democracy, this column traversed the state from North to South. This time, we will start in San Diego and work our way back up North again. But first, there is one major item of statewide news that hasn’t been mentioned elsewhere in this issue. On October 2, the Executive Board of the California Democratic Party adopted a resolution supporting the option of using IRV in single-winner local elections, including elections in general law cities and counties.

On October 17, the Government Efficiency and Openness Committee of the San Diego City Council voted to begin a study of the use of IRV in city elections.  CfER county coordinator Edward Teyssier had been working with Councilmember Donna Frye and her staff for months to make this happen.

CfER now has a county coordinator in neighboring Riverside County, where board member and Media Relations VP June Genis moved recently.

In Santa Monica, the city council voted on September 24 to instruct city staff to study the use of choice voting for the city’s at-large council elections.  This is a major milestone for CfER coordinator Amy Connolly and others in Santa Monica Ranked Voting (see the Summer 2004 issue of Voice for Democracy and http://www.smrankedvoting.org).  Two members of the city clerk’s staff observed San Francisco’s IRV election November 5 – 9.

San Mateo County coordinator Rob Dickinson has been meeting with county elections chief Warren Slocum about IRV and proportional voting.  In addition, the chapter is advocating for a governance task force to be established to consider the best electoral system for the County. The registrar has endorsed SB 596.

On October 25, Alameda County hosted an informational hearing of the Senate Elections Committee, chaired by Senator Debra Bowen (D-28). CfER activists Steve Chessin, Rob Dickinson, Dave Kadlecek, David Holtzman, and Cat Woods addressed the panel, along with representatives of Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and several civil rights groups. For more on Alameda County, see the President’s Letter in this issue.

In Yolo County, Davis Citizens for Representation took a breather after a very busy summer (see the Summer 2005 issue of Voice for Democracy and http://www.davischoicevoting.org), and started up again with a meeting and pot­luck on December 3.

In Eureka, David Ogden and other election reformers are working on a city charter amendment to use IRV for election of the mayor. They would like to move on to choice voting for the city council once IRV is adopted. Dave has been named CfER coordinator for Humboldt County. On October 1 he and other local activists tabled at an election re­form symposium in Eureka, at which CfER VP of Communications Bob Richard spoke.