FairVote - The Center for Voting and Democracy urges elected
officials to push for more democratic forms of election systems,
especially on the local level. FairVote is happy to provide election systems
consulting, resources and assistance with the following methods of
advocating for reform. Several key resources are available for state and city officials:
- City Council Election Methods Manual for Charter Review Commissions [.pdf - 348 KB]
- Mayoral Election Methods Manual for Charter Review Commissions [.pdf - 189 KB]
- Ten Proposals for Electoral Reform State Legislation [.pdf - 176 KB]
- Proportional Voting to Bring Fair Representation to Your City [.pdf - 89 KB]
Ways to Advance Reforms Through Elected Officials
1. Solicitor's Review. Direct your solicitor to review the legality of Instant Runoff
Voting & Full Representation systems for your local government --
city council, school board, vacancies and any single-winner offices. If
there are partisan elections, consider looking at the legality of
systems for just the primary as well as for the general. Start by
drafting a questionnaire that will help the solicitor assist you in
honing in on the potential obstacles to achieving election reform.
FairVote can assist you in pinpointing common legal, statutory, and
technical obstacles to explore more in-depth in your jurisdiction.
2. Study Bill or Resolution.
Introduce a bill or resolution that would create a commission to study
the implementation of IRV or Full-Representation systems. FairVote can help
you draft the language for such a document, provided you with samples
from other jurisdictions, as well as assist you in figuring out what
considerations should go into such a bill. The results of such a study
can be used to bolster your arguments for reform, as well as attract
media and public attention to IRV and Full-Rep. systems.
3. Charter Review.
Push to have IRV & Full-Rep. studies as part of the agenda of the
next periodic Charter Review Commission. If there is an opportunity to
do this earlier, or the next review is too far away, push for an
intermediate review through a council or citizen-initiated review. Full
representation can be used in different variations -- in at-large
elections jurisdiction-wide, for example, and for multi-seat districts.
FairVote can provide assistance and resources in planning a
presentation for
a charter review commission, as well as samples of past testimony.
4. Ballot Initiative. Start
a council-generated or citizen-generated ballot initiative to adopt IRV
& Full-Rep in your community. FairVote has worked with a number of such
ballot question movements and can provide you with resources,
information, and lessons from our work.
5. Council Bill or Resolution.
Introduce a resolution or bill endorsing IRV & Full-Rep systems. If
a prior study has not already been conducted, you can use this as an
opportunity to hold hearings to investigate these voting systems, as
well as highlight the deficiencies of your current system.
6. Voting Machine Compliance.
Make sure that your jurisdiction's voting machines are compliant with
IRV & Full Rep. systems, such as by supporting rank-ballot designs.
Lobby your local board of elections, or pass a resolution or ordinance
to investigate or push this matter. FairVote can provide you with
recommendations for voting machine vendors, as well as ballot designs
and technical consulting. This step can be very important.
7. Study on Fair Representation.
Do you have racial diversity in your jurisdiction? How is it
represented on locally elected bodies? If there is
under-representation, is there the potential of a voting rights
lawsuit? Aside from avoiding litigation, is there interest in providing
fairer representation? Such questions could lead to doing a study on
means to provide fair representation. Studies could also be provided if
there are
other big divides in the jurisdiction -- over issues of
growth, for example, with winner-take-all politics leading to shifts in
support for different views on the issue.
8. Replacing Runoff Elections. If you have contingent runoffs for any office where someone can win in the first round, but there is a second round with fewer candidates if no one reaches some minimum level of support (often 50%), then instant runoff voting can be particularly attractive, especially if it saves the cost of a second election.
9. Vacancy Elections. Some vacancies are filled by special election, some by appointment.
Filling them by election can be popular with voters, and a good time to
use instant runoff voting in a single-round election. If vacancies are
currently filled by two rounds of voting, instant runoff voting also
can make sense.
10. Narrow Uses.
If you have runoff elections, instant runoff voting can be a sensible
system to use for any overseas voters who are voting by absentee --
such as people in the military reserves who have been called up for
Iraq. IRV and full representation also can make sense for some votes of
the council -- for instance, when trying to narrow the field for
picking someone to head a commission. FairVote can be a source of advice on
such voting matters.