On March 31st, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a measure to create a commission to study the use of instant runoff voting for special elections. The measure was introduced by new Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. It came on the heels of a March 24th special primary election to fill Ridley-Thomas' former State Senate seat in which only 6% of registered voters bothered to show up at the polls for an election that cost taxpayers $2.2 million. It was the fifth election local voters have been asked to vote in within the past year, which Ridley-Thomas said contributes to "voter fatigue." The commission will report back to the Board on May 26th on the feasability of using IRV for county elections.State Assemblymember Ted Lieu is expected to introduce a similar measure to enact IRV for state special elections soon. In California, IRV has already been adopted by San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley.
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From Maryland to Hawaii, legislatures across the country are taking up legislation to improve our patchwork system of voter registration. Six states (AZ, CA, MI, RI, WA, MD) have introduced legislation that would set a uniform advance voter registration age of 16-years-old. This policy would allow high schools to conduct effective registration drives and educate students about the mechanics of participation. Hawaii has introduced a universal voter registration bill that would ensure anyone who does not want to register affirmatively opts-out and California is considering legislation that would automatically register citizens when applying for a driver's license or filing their state income taxes. New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a bill that changes "motor voter" to an opt-out system, as opposed to the current "opt-in" regime. Connecticut, New Jersey and New York have legislation before them that would expand voter registration opportunities for high school and college students.
In North Carolina, the state legislature on July 18 sent to the governor
legislation to extend the current pilot program for IRV in localities in
the wake of highly successful IRV elections in 2007 and an endorsement
from the League of Women Voters of NC. In Memphis (TN), a charter
commission has placed IRV on the November ballot, one among several
upcoming IRV measures around the nation. In Long Beach (CA), the Long Beach Press Telegram endorsed the city election director's proposal for IRV. This
fall's five leading candidates for president all have been active
supporters of IRV, while the student-run Roosevelt Institution's new25 Ideas for Electoral Reform features two proposals for instant
runoff voting.