Californians for Proportional Representation

http://www.fairvoteca.org; 510/527-8025

SUGGESTED BY-LAW AMENDMENT LANGUAGE

Suggested by-law language for using Choice Voting and/or IRV for a non-governmental organization:

Amend Section ___, to read:

The Board of Directors shall be elected using Choice Voting. Officers shall be elected using Instant Runoff Voting. Choice Voting provides for greater inclusiveness, without thwarting the will of the majority. Instant Runoff Voting guarantees that the winner has majority support, without having runoff elections.

Choice Voting is defined as an election system in which voters are to able to rank as many candidates as they wish in order of preference. Any of those candidates who reach a certain threshold are deemed to have been elected. The election is counted is rounds. Each round, the candidate with the fewest number of votes is defeated and the votes distributed on the basis of preferences to the remaining candidates until sufficient candidates reach the threshold and are, as a result, elected. No elected candidates are allowed to have more votes than they need to get elected; they cannot receive any more votes after they are elected.

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is the same as Choice Voting, except it is used when there is only one candidate to be elected. In IRV, the threshold will always be a simple majority of the votes, and since there is only candidate elected, there are no surplus votes to transfer.

The Board of Directors must specify rules and procedures for all elections. The rules and procedures must comply with the definitions stated above.