Santa Monica Ranked Voting

Progress!

Our efforts brought Santa Monica significantly closer to fair elections last week.   On Tuesday, September 13th the council voted (5-1) to state an on-going interest in ranked voting and direct staff to monitor the upcoming ranked voting election in San Francisco.  The motion was made by Councilmember Kevin McKeown and seconded by Councilmember Ken Genser.  The first part of the motion was added by a Councilmember Shriver.

Having declared an interest in ranked voting, this city is paving the way for all cities to be able to adopt the voting system that they choose.

In addition, as a result of our efforts, it looks like our city clerk will travel to San Francisco this November to observe their ranked voting election.  Our city has a lot to learn from other cities, many of them in this state, that are implementing this system right now. 

There have been a couple of recent articles in the paper about our efforts, including one at the top of the front page of the Daily Press!  See also this article in The Mirror.

Way to go everybody!

SMRV Submits a Request to Speak to the Council

Santa Monica Ranked Voting has submitted a request to speak to the city council and ask that they direct staff to study the feasibility of adopting and implementing ranked voting for Santa Monica's elections.  This comes at a time of growing interest in ranked voting, especially in California.  If this request passes, it would be a very important step towards fairer elections in our city.  You can find the text of our request here.  We included some supporting materials with our request, including this report by the San Francisco Department of Elections and this report by the Center for Voting and Democracy.  Both of these reports are about San Francisco's very successful election last November, where they used Instant Runoff Voting for the first time.  We are currently waiting for the city to assign a date for this agenda item.  In the meantime, we are requesting letters of support from local organizations and letting our supporters know that this item is imminent. 

So far, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Wilshire/Montana Neighborhood Coalition and the Pico Neighborhood Association have all voted to supply a letter of support for this item. 

You can help by sending a letter of support as well.  Here is a sample letter (Word, pdf) for you to modify with a personal touch before mailing to the council.  Also, be prepared to come to the council meeting and show your support for this important reform!

Majority of Voters in British Columbia This Month Support Ranked Voting

With record voter turnout of more than 1.6 million, voters in British Columbia on May 17th overwhelmingly supported Choice Voting (ranked voting) to elect their legislature. Although the reform initiative fell just short of the required 60% threshold, the campaign garnered an unambiguous yes-vote of 57.4%. It also won a majority of the votes cast in a remarkable 97% of districts from all over the province, with broad support in both rural and urban districts.  Now it is up to the legislature to carry out the will of the majority of voters and enact this fairer system.  You can find out more about this historic development here.

Santa Monica's Mayor Pro Tem Endorses!

Herb Katz, Mayor Pro-Tempore of Santa Monica, has endorsed the statement "I support the use of ranked voting for Santa Monica's elections."  He added, "I favor it being tried."  This makes two endorsers on the Santa Monica city council.  A full list of people who have endorsed may be found here.  That same page has information about how you can endorse as well.  Join us as we keep moving ever closer to fairer elections in Santa Monica!

Historic Moment for Ranked Voting in Davis, CA!

A Governance Task Force in Davis, California voted nearly unanimously to recommend Choice Voting for their city's elections.  Congratulations to that rockin' Davis ranked voting group (www.davischoicevoting.org)!  Here's a story about the Task Force recommendation.  The recommendation still needs to be approved by the Davis city council.  We wish Davis continued success towards fairer elections!

New Endorsements of Ranked Voting!

We are proud to announce that Edward Asner has endorsed the use of ranked voting for elections "EVERYWHERE" (his emphasis).  In addition, Kelly Hayes-Raitt, a candidate for state assembly in 2006, has also endorsed the use of ranked voting for Santa Monica's elections.  Also Jeff Sklar, member of Santa Monica's Rent Control Board, has also endorsed.  We thank these prominent members of our community for expressing their support!  If you would like to endorse as well, you can simply follow the instructions here.  Endorsements are an important part of this effort.  Thanks, everybody!

SMRV Celebrates its One Year Birthday This Month!

It was one year ago this month that SMRV held its first meeting to advocate for Choice Voting and Instant Runoff Voting in Santa Monica.  During the past year, we have been speaking to neighborhood groups, holding very successful mock elections to educate people about ranked voting, and building a strong coalition of people in our community that support this reform.  Our activities were featured in the local papers no less than seven times last year.  We look forward to stepping up our efforts in 2005 as we continue to work toward fairer elections in Santa Monica.  Join us at our next meeting to learn more!   

Ranked Voting Group in Davis, CA Launches Website

Exciting developments in Davis, CA!  A newly formed group (Davis Citizens for Representation, DCR) is making lots of great progress advocating Choice Voting for city council elections there.  The group has just launched a sharp website at http://davischoicevoting.org.  Check it out, and please forward the address to anyone in the neighborhood of Davis who might be interested.  We are looking forward to staying in contact with this group and learning from each other as we both work towards a common goal:  more effective votes and fair representation for everyone in our community. 

Daily Press Article -- Top of the Front Page!

The Daily Press printed an excellent article on Wednesday, November 10th about our analysis of the rate of undervoting in the most recent city council election in Santa Monica.  This is the second time this year that Santa Monica Ranked Voting was featured at the top of the front page of the Daily Press (see the previous article here).  Thanks to John Wood at the Daily Press for his excellent reporting of this topic!

San Franciscans Got to Rank Their Choices on Tuesday!

San Francisco used Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) for the first time on Tuesday, Nov 2nd. to elect their Board of Supervisors (their city government). See this article in the San Francisco Chronicle for the whole story. In that article, San Francisco elections chief John Arntz is quoted as saying, "I think ranked-choice voting really went well, everything was pretty smooth.'' This is great news for other municipalities (like Santa Monica) that may consider ranked voting in future elections!

The vote tallies may be found here.  Just click on RCV1, RCV5, etc.  Looking over these results is a good chance to see IRV in action!