Election Watch
May 27, 2003
Ranked Choice Voting
Progress The Secretary of State continues
to conduct the required administrative review of the SF Dept. of
Elections "partial hand count" procedures for counting ranked choice
ballots. State Elections Division Chief John Mott-Smith called the
proposal ���potentially workable��� and will soon schedule a public
hearing on it. A ruling on state certification of the City���s
procedures will be issued 30 days following the public hearing. This
is all normal administrative procedure.
A ���partial hand count��� is similar to how ranked
choice ballots are counted in other nations, including New Zealand,
Ireland, and Australia, and also previously in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. With a "partial hand count," first rankings will be
counted on election night on the Optech Eagle machine, the way
ballots always have been counted in San Francisco on the Eagle.
Those results will be posted on Election Night. If no one has a
majority of first choices, the Dept. of Elections will use a hand
scanner to finish the job. While this could take a couple of weeks
to finish and be labor-intensive, this process would give San
Francisco the most transparent and secure ballot-counting process it
has ever had.
What About Counting the
Ballots Entirely with the Eagle machines? Counting all ballots
entirely with the Eagle machines is still the preference of all
parties involved and the voting equipment vendor, ES&S, is
continuing work to retrofit the Eagles in time for use on Election
Day. But there may not be enough time for this election to receive
required certification for changes to voting equipment hardware and
software. So for this election we may need a one-time solution, and
then the Eagles will be ready for all future elections. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE: The
difficulty in meeting these timelines is not because the job of
upgrading the Eagles is too hard, but because the Dept. of Elections
lost a good eight months of crucial time over the ���Tammy Haygood
Affair.��� Proposition A was passed on March 5, 2002 but,
unfortunately, Haygood did not begin immediately implementing
Proposition A and she was eventually fired by the Elections
Commission. The first meetings with new Elections Director John
Arntz about Ranked Choice Voting did not occur until August 2002.
The first decision by Director Arntz giving direction to the vendor
ES&S did not occur until October 2002. The first contract
negotiations and actual work for implementation did not occur until
January 2003. By that time, the Department had lost nearly a
full year for RCV implementation
. Nevertheless, the vendor ES&S says
they will be able to meet their deadlines and facilitate a smooth
election. Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez has
introduced a budget appropriation of $1.6 million for upgrading the
Eagles to handle Ranked Choice Voting. The negotiated contract,
which is close to being signed, has benchmarks in it in case the
vendor, ES&S, is unable to meet the tight timeline. The Board
has begun to consider the funding proposal for the implementation of
Ranked Choice Voting and on Wednesday, June 4th the Board���s Finance
Committee will consider this and another key funding proposal to
implement Ranked Choice Voting. The meeting will take place at 12:30
pm in Room 263 at City Hall. Please attend. Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval
introduced a $2.5 million budget appropriation for the Department of
Elections��� proposed Community Education Plan for Ranked Choice
Voting. That budget appropriation also will be considered by the
Board���s Finance Committee on June 4th. The Dept. of Elections has
made public the details of its ambitious Plan to carry out RCV Voter
Education, which is required by the City Charter. The price tag for
this Plan may be higher than is possible to get funded in these
difficult budget times. Consequently, an independent analysis of the
Plan by the Center for Voting and Democracy, along with
recommendations for what should be prioritized in case the Plan has
to be scaled back, was presented to Director Arntz and the Elections
Commission on May 21. For a copy of the independent analysis please
email [email protected]
Latest Action By
Opponents of Ranked Choice Voting
The San Francisco
Chronicle and Examiner recently reported on a legal challenge
to Ranked Choice Voting. What they were reporting on was not a legal
challenge or lawsuit, but a letter sent to the Secretary of State by
the Sacramento law firm Remcho, Johansen & Purcell, whose
attorneys have represented Mayor Willie Brown and other prominent
politicians on election matters. This letter is part of the public
comment that anyone can make to the Secretary of State as part of
its certification process of the procedures and equipment to be used
for Ranked Choice Voting. In the letter, the Sacramento firm
claimed to represent several minority voters��� in San Francisco. The
letter claimed that RCV will, "disenfranchise a disproportionate
number of minority voters and diminish their ability to participate
in San Francisco's electoral process." It also claimed that, "San
Francisco has presented no contingency plans should that
cash-strapped city fail to come up with the additional $2.3 million
needed to fund the full manual count," and that, "San Francisco's
current proposal bears no resemblance to the system proposed to the
voters as Proposition A." While this is not a legal challenge per
se, some have claimed that this is the basis for a lawsuit that will
be filed soon. According to several voting rights attorneys, if
these are the best legal arguments they have to repeal RCV, which
was passed by 55% of all San Francisco voters ��� and more than 60% of
African-American and Latino voters ��� they will lose badly in ccourt.
Certainly all evidence from other nations and American cities
suggests that people of color will have more voting power with RCV
than with December runoffs. And opponents may end up paying court
fees and perhaps legal damages. Inside the Elections
Commission and Department of Elections
o The Commission has elected Alix Rosenthal
as its new President. Rosenthal, who was appointed to serve on the
Commission until January 2006 by ex-Public Defender Kimiko Burton,
pledged to implement Ranked Choice Voting and create greater
transparency of the Elections Department. o This month, the
Commission also welcomed its newest member, Reverend Arnold
Townsend, Assistant Pastor of Bread of Life Community Church.
Appointed by Mayor Brown, Rev. Townsend made his first official act
a request to schedule a public hearing on the Dept. of Elections
draft Ranked Choice Voting Public Outreach Plan. o On May 21, the
Elections Commission voted to appoint John Arntz as the Permanent
Director of the Department of Elections for a five-year term. Arntz
had been serving as the Acting Director since last year. o Following last year���s
redistricting, the Dept. of Elections staff recently completed a
re-precincting of the City���s voter map and are proposing to
consolidate the current 643 precincts into 562 precincts.
Mark Your Calendar
On Wednesday, June 4th the Board
of Supervisors Finance Committee will consider the two key funding
proposals to implement Ranked Choice Voting. The meeting will take
place at 12:30 pm in Room 263 at City Hall. Please come and show
your support.
On Wednesday, June 18th the Elections Commission will
hold a Public Hearing on the Ranked Choice Voting Public Education
Plan proposed by the Dept. of Elections. This will be a prime
opportunity for interested organizations and members of the
community to shape the final Plan. 7:00 pm in Room 400 at City Hall.
Come and be heard.
SF Election Watch is a project of the Center for
Voting and Democracy For more information contact Jon Golinger at
(415) 531-8585 or [email protected]
or visit www.fairvote.org/sf |