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E-News Update
March 11,
2002
To: Friends of Fair Elections
Fr: Rob Richie, [email protected], Executive
Director
Center for Voting and Democracy, www.fairvote.org
Takoma Park,
Maryland
Re: - Ground-breaking wins for instant runoff
voting
-
Links and news shorts
History was made on March 5, when more than 55% of
San Francisco voters gave a big thumb's up to adopting instant
runoff voting for electing their most important offices, including
mayor. Across the country, voters in 50 cities and towns in rural
Vermont endorsed a proposal to use instant runoff voting (IRV) for
electing statewide offices. Despite well-financed by defenders of
the status quo who spent perhaps as much as $100,000 or more trying
to confuse voters with slick mailings, San Francisco now becomes the
first major American city to use IRV to elect its officials. It
replaces two-round runoff elections that cost more than a million
dollars a year, lead to low voter turnout and negative campaigning
and exacerbate campaign financing demands. Depending on the capacity
of the City's Department of Elections, IRV will be used either this
fall or in November 2003. Center for Voting and Democracy
staff members Steven Hill and Caleb Kleppner developed a
remarkable grassroots campaign, full of volunteer energy, that delivered
more than 150,000 door-hangers in targeted precincts around the
city. Leading civic organizations and elected officials rose to the
challenge as well; endorsers included Rep. Kevin Shelley, who won
the Democratic Party nomination for Secretary of State this week,
and the Sierra Club, San Francisco Labor Council, Common Cause, NOW,
Congress of California Seniors, Chinese for Affirmative Action,
Latino Democratic Club, Libertarian Party, Democratic Party, Green
Party and CalPIRG. In Vermont, 51of 54 town meetings supported a
League of Women Voters-sponsored proposal to use IRV for electing
statewide offices. Vermont IRV backers range from Democratic
Governor Howard Dean and Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz to
2000 Republican gubernatorial nominee Ruth Dwyer, Common Cause and
the Grange. Our New England regional director Terry Bouricius did
masterful work on this effort on a shoestring budget. Instant
runoff voting (IRV) has the potential to crack open electoral
politics to new voices and better choices. Used for major elections
in Australia, Ireland and Great Britain, IRV ensures that candidates
win with majority support in one efficient election. Voters indicate
both their favorite and their runoff choices on the same ballot. If
no candidate receives a winning majority of first choices, the weak
candidates are eliminated. Just as in a delayed runoff, their
supporters choose among the runoff finalists as indicated by the
next-choices preferences marked on their ballots. Voters who ranked
one of the finalists first continue to have their votes count for
their favorite choice. You can read much more about instant runoff
voting, the win in San Francisco and the near-sweep of Vermont town
meeting votes on-line. Please see: * The Center's news release
and two pre-election articles
* A
range of news and information
about instant runoff voting at
* The San Francisco campaign's
website
* Coverage at http://www.alternet.org, http://www.tompaine.com and http://www.thenation.com/thebeat
. You also will enjoy reading an
on-the-spot reaction to the victory by Dan Johnson-Weinberger, the Center's
national field director,
below.
Later this month we plan to send an update with a range of
helpful links and information about our full range of work and then
begin a short, monthly update. As previews, we urge you to visit our
* all-state redistricting
guide, with news about how this redistricting cycle has been the
worst in decades for restricting voter choice and expanded
representation (the
report
and a widely-published commentary
* news about the growing
movement to institute instant runoff voting and/or proportional
representation for student elections: the University of Illinois and
Carleton College recently adopted reforms, joining such universities
as Harvard, MIT, Princeton, UC-Berkeley, Stanford and University of
Wisconsin
(see http://fairvote.org/schools/index.html
) * examples of websites
being developed in order to allow people to use instant runoff
voting election on-line
http://www.demochoice.org and
http://www.purpletech.com/irv
) Short news items from
recent weeks include:
-- The Utah Republican Party State Central Committee
earlier this year amended its bylaws to enable the use of instant
runoff voting in neighborhood precinct caucuses where state and
county delegates and precinct officers are elected. -- More than a
dozen states have debated instant runoff voting legislation in
2001-2. New legislation was introduced this year in Florida,
Washington (where a well-attended hearing was held in January) -- It's an important time for
congressional action on campaign finance reform and electoral
reform. Among many, good website resources to track these
developments include: ElectionLine.Org, Center for Responsive
Politics, Demos, Constitution
Project Election Reform Initiative
-- The Scottish Executive
will forge ahead with plans to introduce proportional representation
for local government elections. Scotland, Wales and London all had
used proportional representation for their most recent
elections. -- Pakistan will have elections
for the first time in several years later this year. Elections have
used only winner-take-all elections, but with separate rolls. Now
proportional representation will be used to elect "reserved seats"
for women and technocrats. Many in Pakistan want to go
farther toward proportional representation.
-- CVD staff and board members
continue to speak regularly before organizations, students and
elected officials - recent and upcoming talks include those at Duke,
Princeton, Georgetown Law School, University of Indiana, George
Washington Law School, the NAACP affiliates in South Carolina,
Maryland and Virginia and national election administration
conferences in Florida and Washington, DC. Contact CVD at [email protected]
or (301) 270-4616 for more information. -- Finally, our remarkable
chairman, John B. Anderson, celebrated his 80th birthday last month.
A guest on C-SPAN in January, John's
year-end message to organizational members can be read.
This week's victories
certainly are a wonderful gift for John. Stay tuned for more news about
reform and the Center's plans for 2002. And of course, as a
non-profit organization in the midst of some exciting projects, we
need support from the public. To learn how to support the Center,
see http://fairvote.org/donate.htm , and enjoy
Dan Johnson- Weinberger's message to activists late on the night of
March 5th in San Francisco.
How Sweet is... Victory in San
Francisco!
From the Center's
national field director Dan Johnson-Weinberger.
From the campaign in San Francisco right now -- there's
champagne flowing, there's wild celebration and I can't believe it.
I can't believe it!! We probably won! This is a new movement for
American democracy. This is the real deal. This is a real movement.
We've all been a part of it. And we did it with heart and soul and
sweat and dollars and effort. And I'm telling you, the Prop A
campaign had the BEST grass-roots campaign of anyone in the entire
city. ANYONE. We had 1000 phone calls made from people all over the
country. We had small checks sent in from all over the country. This
is amazing. This is awesome. Unless you hear back from me in the
next few hours -- WE HAVE WON!!! AND THE MOVEMENT FOR FAIR VOTING
HAS BEGUN!!!!! Absolutely delighted and honored to be a
part of the movement for democracy,
Dan Johnson-Weinberger
For the first edition of our new on-line digest, click
here
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