I want to report on our Annual General Meeting (AGM) last May, and on an interesting trip to Long Beach that Bob Richard and I took on July 8th.

Yolo County Clerk-Recorder Freddie Oakley gave a terrific keynote address at our AGM. We gave Wilma Rule Memorial Awards to State Senator Tom McClintock for being the only Republican in the legislature to vote for AB 1294, and to Max Rexroad, conservative Yolo county supervisor, who wrote an editorial in support of AB 1294 in the California Flash Report, an influential Republican web site. Their support of AB 1294 helped in our outreach when we tabled at the California Republican Convention last February.

In alphabetical order, the following people were elected to the board: Steve Chessin, Rob Dickinson, Dave Kadlecek, Paula Lee, Pete Martineau, Chuck O'Neil, Casey Peters, Bob Richard, and Gabrielle Weeks. While it was sad to see Tom Gangale leave the Board, he will remain active as our VP of Chapters.

Our officer lineup is in the box below this article. (The Secretary position is vacant -- any volunteers?)

On July 8th, Bob Richard and I took a day trip to Long Beach. Our original intent was to speak to the Elections Legislation Committee of the California Association of Clerks and Elections Officials (CACEO) about AB 1662, but between the time we booked our non-refundable fares and the day of the trip we were informed that we would not be able to meet with the whole committee, just with their co-chairs. (It wasn't due to maliciousness, just a miscommunication.) But this snafu freed us to attend a meeting of the Elections Oversight Committee (EOC) of the Long Beach City Council, which was meeting that same afternoon to consider IRV.

While the meeting with CACEO did not go as well as hoped, the one with the Long Beach EOC was more fruitful. The Long Beach City Clerk is a strong supporter of IRV, and he made a strong case to the EOC. Gautam Dutta of the New America Foundation also testified, as did Bob, Gabrielle Weeks (a Long Beach resident), her husband Coby Skye, and myself. Also testifying was a representative of Hart InterCivic, the election vendor for Long Beach. The Hart equipment is what is known as pixel-based optical-scan, which means that, unlike the ES&S and Sequoia equipment that limits San Francisco voters to three rankings, Hart's equipment enables a Cambridge-style bubble sheet that can accommodate 20 rankings or more. No hardware changes are required for IRV, just changes to three software applications (ballot layout, ballot presentation, and ballot tabulation).

The City Clerk is pushing for a November IRV charter amendment; we may know by the time you read this newsletter if that will indeed happen.