Over the past ten years, three charter cities in Alameda County have amended their charters to allow or require the use of instant runoff voting in various circumstances, but none of them have yet used IRV in any city elections. It looks like 2010 may be the year in which IRV is finally implemented in one or more Alameda County cities' municipal elections.

In San Leandro, the city charter authorizes the use of IRV but doesn't require it. The decision on whether to use IRV is completely up to the seven-member City Council, which currently is split with three in favor of using IRV, three opposed, and one undecided.

In Oakland, the city charter requires the use of IRV once the county is able to conduct IRV elections for the city. While some city officials (including several city council members, possibly a majority of the city council) would use any excuse to block the implementation of IRV, the charter language seems to be strong enough to overcome any open or covert political opposition. The biggest potential roadblock would be if state approvals to use the county's voting equipment are delayed, because even though an Oakland IRV election would be in November 2010, if IRV is not used the City Council would need to vote in late January or early February to call a June 2010 primary election.

In Berkeley, the city charter requires the use of IRV once several conditions are met, the most crucial of which is that it wouldn't cost the city more to conduct IRV elections than the existing system (a two-round runoff with a 40% threshold for avoiding a second round). Berkeley's city council appears to be strongly in favor of moving ahead on IRV, so it appears Berkeley will go ahead and use IRV for its 2010 elections if the cost can be interpreted as being less than that of conducting a November 2010 first round and a February 2011 runoff in its city elections.

The Alameda County Registrar of Voters, Dave Macdonald, has said that he is willing to conduct IRV elections for cities in the county under the same conditions as San Francisco has, and the vendor Sequoia has applied to the state for permission for their upgraded system that supports IRV to be used in Alameda County as well as in San Francisco. If the Secretary of State's office approves this use by the end of this year (and we expect the approval to come by October at the latest, before San Francisco's November 2009 municipal election), we'll be on track to use IRV in Oakland in November 2010.