By Judith Scherr
Published November 21st 2006 in Berkeley Daily Planet
Nine people were elected to the KPFA Local Station Board using ranked choice voting, where voters rank candidates according to their preferences.
There were 3,983 people who cast votes, 15.3 percent of the members eligible to vote. Five members of the Concerned Listener Slate, two members of the Alliance for a Democratic KPFA, and two independents won slots on the board:
- Sarv Randhawa of the Concerned Listener Slate and vice chair of the Pacifica Board was elected in the first round;
- Conn Hallinan, also of the Concerned Listener Slate was elected on the second round;
- Henry Norr of the Alliance for a Democratic KPFA was elected on the seventh round;
- Phoebe Anne Sorgen of the Concerned Listener Slate was elected on the 14th round;
- Andrea Turner of the Concerned Listener Slate was elected on the 14th round;
- Noelle Hanrahan, independent, was elected on the 18th round;
- Vida Samiian, independent, was elected on the 18th round;
- Ernesto (Tico) Chacin of the Concerned Listener State was elected on the 18th round;
- Sasha Futran of the Alliance Slate was elected on the 22nd round.
Details on the 22 rounds it took to elect the 18 people can be found at www.kpfa.org/elections/2006/TransferDetailReport.txt.
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.