Currently candidates are voted into office using a simple plurality system that has a spoiler effect if more than 2 candidates run for a seat. (In the 2000 election of Gore and Bush, Ralph Nader was considered a 'spoiler' vote.) One candidate must receive a threshold number of votes to win. If the threshold is not reached then there is a runoff vote. In our last election we had just such a case for Superior Court Judge. Seven candidates ran in the June primary and the 2 candidates with the highest percentages then advanced to the November ballot. In the meantime the candidates spent oodles of time and money between June and November and the county spent oodles of money for another election cycle. In Instant Runoff Voting voters would have voted for the candidates a little differently. Voters would have 'ranked' the Superior Court Judge candidates by preference. So with seven choices voters would have ranked their preference 1 � 7. If the counting of the votes did not produce a clear winner at 50% +1 vote with all the 1st choices then the candidate with the lowest number of votes would have been eliminated and the 2nd choice candidate for those voters would have been spread across the remaining candidates and so on until a candidate achieves the 50% +1 vote win. (For further explanation go to www.nevadacountytv.org and look for a show called Voices of Democracy and the title 'Instant Runoff Voting'. You can also find more information at www.fairvote.org.) In this method EVERY vote counts and we have a winner instantly with no subsequent runoff vote required. The county and the candidates save lots of money and every voter can be satisfied that their vote was counted. This is an approach that leads to a truly democratic system of voting with no spoiler effect. The following counties and cities have passed and are or will be using IRV voting in 2008: Oakland, Berkeley, Davis, Alameda County, Santa Clara County, Santa Monica, San Leandro, San Francisco The requirements to implement IRV in Nevada County are: 1. The county and/or cities must be chartered. (Grass Valley and Truckee are chartered, Nevada County and Nevada City are not.) This can be rectified by the BOS creating a charter for the county and/or Nevada City council creating a charter for Nevada City. The charters need to be modified with language that allows choice voting systems in the city and county. 2. The new voting systems that the county is currently looking at MUST have provisions in the contract to allow �Choice' voting at no or minimal extra charge. (Berkeley passed IRV voting but when they wanted to implement it in 2005 Diebold told them it would cost them $2 million! Berkeley no longer uses Diebold.) 3. A measure must get on the 2008 ballot by city or county depending on how quickly the county can be chartered or change it's voting rules. By county this requires approximately 4000 signatures, cities will require substantially less signatures. 4. Voter outreach and education so that all voters in the county understand the advantages and fairness of such a change in the voting system Nevada County is a proactive community and will undoubtedly welcome an opportunity to join with other progressive communities in implementing a more fair and democratic voting system.