Incumbent smiles match mayoral grin

By Pat Murphy
Published November 9th 2005 in San Francisco
San Francisco voters created appointed Treasurer Jose Cisneros an elected official in his own right yesterday, with fellow appointee Assessor Phil Ting headed to probable victory.

Initial Election Department tally closed last night with Ting leading Gerardo Sandoval by 9451 votes, and 46.67% to 38.61% of vote capture. Sandoval would need to take nearly 75% of second choice ranked tally to overcome the Ting lead.

Results of continuing vote count will be announced daily at 4:00 p.m. by Elections Department Director John Arntz of ranked choice votes, absentee ballots cast same day as election, and provisional ballots.

In local ballot measures, voters said yes to gun ban, insisted all fire stations remain open, and declined to give the Board of Supervisors partial appointment power over MUNI.

California rebuffed the governor's special election agenda across the board, with total campaign and taxpayer costs possibly reaching $300 million.

IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers.  Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections;  the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

Links