Mendocino County Instant Runoff Voting

 About IRV

 Mendocino

 Links

 

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. Alice Walker

Read more about instant runoff/ranked voting throughout California at Californians for Electoral Reform.

sfrcv.org has more about San Francisco's experience with instant runoff voting.

Howard Dean speaks on Instant Runoff Voting as he votes in the March 2006 Burlington, Vermont IRV city elections.

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) Information from The Center for Voting and Democracy

 

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See a sample ballot

Watch a power point demo at instantrunoff.com

Watch a flash demo at instantrunoff.com

Watch an animated explanation at fairvote.org

Try IRV voting at demochoice.org

IRV straw poll for president at indaba.org

What is Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)?

 

 

Easy as 1-2-3

Instant runoff voting (IRV) is one type of "ranked voting". Voters simply rank each candidate in order of preference instead of voting for only their first-choice candidate. That's all voters have to do. The rest is done by the vote counters. The basic rules are:

  1. A candidate needs over 50% of the votes to win.
  2. If no candidate gets over 50%, eliminate the candidate with the fewest votes and have an immediate runoff count among all remaining candidates.
  3. Repeat step 2 until somebody gets over 50% of the votes.

Benefits of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)

Casting a single IRV ballot replaces a non-IRV general election and any needed runoffs.

Candidates win some non-IRV elections with less than 50% of the votes just by getting more votes than their opponents. Two candidates may be considered the "real" contenders with independent or third-party candidates considered "vote-stealing spoilers". Voters may feel like a vote for one of the "other" candidates is wasted and could throw the election to the candidate they want least. With IRV, a winning candidate always needs over 50% of the votes. Votes aren't "wasted" because IRV vote counts also consider second-choice votes, and winners have more support since they win with over 50% of the vote.

Candidates compete for second-choice votes as well as first-choice votes. They risk losing second-choice votes by trashing opponents in a negative campaign.

Governments save money by eliminating runoff elections, and candidates need less money to campaign.

Voters have more options and can vote for the candidate they really want which encourages more enthusiastic participation.

How Instant Is It?

There may be several rounds of vote counts, based on the way voters rank each candidate. If no candidate receives over 50% of the first-choice votes, it triggers an immediate recount. Since voters ranked all candidates in order of preference, everyone's second choice is clear and votes can be immediately recounted rather than having a whole new election. The next round of vote counting drops the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes. Everyone who voted for the remaining candidates as their first choice has their first-choice votes counted as before. Everyone who voted for the now-eliminated candidate has their second-choice vote added to the other votes. Each voter still has one vote, and there are the same number of total votes in each round of vote counts.

If there are more than three candidates, and there's still no winner after the second round of counting, once again the candidate with the fewest votes gets eliminated and there's another immediate count using second-choice or third-choice votes. Even with multiple candidates and several consecutive vote counts, there can still be a winner by the next day.

 


Bringing IRV to Mendocino County

 

 

Updated Oct 16, 2007

Mendocino is a general law county. Under current state law, only charter cities and counties have the option of switching to instant runoff elections. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed AB1294 which would have changed this.

This is the governor's veto message:
To the Members of the California State Assembly: I am returning Assembly Bill 1294 without my signature. This bill would allow cities and counties, subject to voter approval, to conduct a local election using a ranked voting system. This represents a drastic change to the way we vote. Although there are some proponents for ranked voting, which allows for so-called “instant runoff” elections, I am concerned that we don’t yet know enough about how voters will react to such a dramatic change in the way they vote. For instance, charter cities and counties already have the right to hold ranked voting elections, yet only one city has done so thus far, and that was on a trial basis only. Further, the machines necessary to implement ranked voting are not widely available nor have any been certified by the Secretary of State. As the Secretary of State recently decertified the vast majority of electronic voting machines used for traditional elections, it is premature to even contemplate moving to ranked voting tomorrow until we have resolved any issues with the machines needed for how we vote today.

AB1294 required voter education. Ranked voting has been very successful in California, other states and around the world. The paper ballots we use in Mendocino County are easily adapted for ranked voting. Without a change to the state election code, most California local governments can't even consider ranked voting.

Californians for Electoral Reform will continue working to bring ranked voting to Mendocino County and California.

Read a letter from the City of Fort Bragg supporting AB1294.

 


Contact Us

 

 

- Local Contacts
Californians for Electoral Reform - Statewide Orgnanization


Links

 

 

Ranked Voting

Californians for Electoral Reform - Promoting Voting Methods for Equal Representation
California IRV Coalition - Working to Implement IRV Statewide
DemoChoice Polls - Web Polls where the Voters Win
FairVote - Fair Representation and Meaningful Choices
InstantRunoffCA - Yahoo Information and Discussion Group
Instant Runoff Voting - Spoiler-Free Elections with Several Candidates
Marin Ranked Voting - Marin Ranked Voting

Political Humor

Capitol Steps - We put the 'MOCK' in Democracy
Political Prevaricator Test - Are You a Potential Political Prevaricator?

Election Reforms

Ballot Integrity Project - Voting Systems
Campaign Reform Information Center - A Variety of Viewpoints
Fair Elections - fairelections.org: Stop the hype, distortions and misinformation
Fair Elections - fairelections.us: Campaign Finance Reform
Open Debates - Reforming Presidential Debates
Public Campaign - Clean Money, Clean Elections
Small Planet Institute - A Resource for Hope and Action
Project Vote Smart - Elections, Candidates and Voting

Politics and Elections

3rd Party Central - Your Ideal Political Reality
Ace Project - Administration and Cost of Elections
Common Cause - Holding Power Accountable
Junior State of America - High School Political Awareness Programs
League of Women Voters - Nonpartisan Citizen Education and Advocacy

Mendocino County

County of Mendocino - Internet Resources
League of Women Voters of Mendocino - Make Democracy Work

California

California Progress Report - Politics, Policy and Progressive Action
California Elections Code
California Voter Foundation - Technology and Democracy
State of California - California Portal
Voices of Reform Project- Promoting Responsive, Representantive State Government