Election Watch
June 20, 2003
THANKS AND FOLLOW-UP
FROM WEDNESDAY'S BIG IRV HEARING Thanks to all who packed the SF
Elections Commission Wednesday night and spoke in a show of
overwhelming support for the successful implementation of Instant
Runoff Voting in SF this year. More than 70 people and
representatives of groups including the SF Chapters of NOW, the
Sierra Club, and the League of Women Voters, the Southeast Asian
Community Center, the Richmond Democratic Club, the SF Labor
Council, the Northern California Citizens Project, and the Harvey
Milk L/G/B/T Democratic Club attended. 2 people showed up to speak
out against the implementation of IRV. Elections Commissioners
asked everyone present - and those who couldn't make it - to do two
things to turn the positive comments from Wednesday into substantive
actions by the Commission in 2 weeks: 1) Put your comments about the
proposed IRV Public Education Plan in writing to the Commission. At
the end of the hearing, Commissioners expressed their desire to hear
more specific comments from the public about what they should change
in the Dept. of Elections' proposed $526,000 IRV Public Education
Plan. Send an email with your comments (see suggestions below)
addressed to: All Commissioners, SF Elections Commission at: [email protected]
2) Attend the next meeting of the SF
Elections Commission to see how they decide to act in response to
all of the Public Comments. Wednesday, July 2 at 7pm, Room 400, SF
City Hall. Hope to see you there.
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Suggestions for changes to the SF Dept. of Elections' proposed IRV
Public Education Plan: #1 Keep the Voter Education Message Simple,
Not Complicated ��� Just tell Voters to Rank Their Choices. Don���t
overwhelm every voter with complicated messages about the history of
Ranked Choice Voting and every detail about the vote counting
process. People that ask those questions should get answers, but the
message should focus on what voters will see when they look at their
ballot. #2 Make sure most of the voter education resources go first
to communities of color and precincts where there is usually lower
voter turnout. #3 The Commission should ask the Board of
Supervisors to release the additional $250,000 for voter education
as soon as possible. #4 The Dept. of Elections shouldn't waste any
of the limited public education dollars on excessive spending such
as the $40,000 they've budgeted for a website: spend more on
community outreach instead.
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