Voice for Democracy
Newsletter of the Northern California
Citizens for Proportional Representation
July-September1998
EMPOWERING THE VOTER:
A Conference on PR,
Reapportionment and Voting System Reform
Mark you calendars for Saturday and
Sunday, September 12 and 13! We are
co-sponsoring a conference on the basics of proportional representation to be
held in San Francisco at the California State Building, 505 Van Ness at
McAlister. "Our goal is to educate
and empower ourselves to go beyond discussing the problems inherent in our
electoral system. We will develop an
action plan to bring about more representative democracy. With less apathy, there will be a turn
toward participation and individual responsibility for the collective
process." - John B. Anderson, President of the Center for Voting and
Democracy.
After registration at 8:30 a.m., the
keynote address will set the tone of Saturday mornings work: a Public Hearing
on Race, Reapportionment, and Representation. Testimony on the need for
reapportionment reform will be heard from, among others, Connie Rice,
NAACP-LDF, Denise Hulett, MALDF, Sheila Jordan, former city councilor-Oakland,
Roy Ulrich, Common Cause, and Bonnie Tang, Asian Pacific American Legal
Services.
Saturday afternoon’s three hour-long
sessions of workshops and panels begin with West Coast CV&D Director Steve
Hill's "ABC's of Voting System Reform." This session from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. offers four more panels
including "PR and Campaign Finance Reform: Complementary Reforms?"
"Representation of Women," "PR Around the World," and
"The Courts and Reform."
TIME
TO RENEW !!!
With this issue of the
newsletter we're starting something new--simultaneous annual membership renewal
to Northern California Citizens for Proportional Representation. We are including renewal forms and envelopes
- minimizing our work in contacting you and your work in remembering to follow
up.
Please renew by filling out the form and mailing it with your
check in the enclosed envelope. Your
support helps us keep in contact and provide you with important information
about NCCPR. Ours is a reciprocal
relationship - you need to hear from us and we need to hear from you! (Also see “The Sustainer Program”, on page
three).
Here's to a great year of PR communication and joint work.
The Presidents, Vice-presidents and Board
Session Two from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.
features a workshop/panel: "How Do You Count Those Transferable Ballots,
Anyway?" moderated by Jim Lindsay of NCCPR. Planned concurrent panels
include: "Hitler, Coalitions and Complexity: Impact of PR on
Policy-making," "Foundations and Political Reform," and
"The Voting Rights Act and Representation of Minorities."
Planned concurrent panels
include: "Hitler, Coalitions and Complexity: Impact of PR on
Policy-making," "Foundations and Political Reform," and
"The Voting Rights Act and Representation of Minorities."
The third
and final session from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. will discuss voter participation, media
coverage, and PR in California, Texas, Illinois, and New Mexico.
Sunday's
workshops will be devoted to training activists in the fine points of their
local work. Speaker training,
organization of state and local chapters, and the role of minority parties in
advancing reform are among the workshops planned for Sunday morning.
That
afternoon's plenary is entitled, "2020 Vision: Real Democracy and How to
Get There," with John B. Anderson, President of the Center for Voting and Democracy, giving the opening remarks
and Rob Richie, Executive Director of CV&D moderating. Panelists include Zach Pollet, ACORN, Kathy
Spillar, Feminist Majority Foundation, and Carol Miller, New Mexico Green
Party. After the plenary, from 2:30 to
3:30 p.m. there will be small group sessions, followed by a closing plenary
session from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. with report-backs from the small groups and parting
comments by CV&D.
The cost of
the conference is $30 for the full week-end, $20 for one day (breakfast and
lunch included), after 9/1/98, $40 and $25 respectively/scholarships for low
income.
Juices,
tea, coffee, water, fruit, bagels and sweet rolls will be served both mornings
at 8:30 a.m. registration. Lunches will be catered in the cafeteria both
Saturday and Sunday.
For
registration information contact Steve Hill, CV&D West Coast Director,
(415) 665-5044 or e-mail to voteaction@hotmail.com
or see www.fairvote.org.
Since NCCPR
is co-sponsoring this event, we ask you to volunteer for tasks on both
days. Call Steve and let him know what
you can do.
What’s happening in your neck of the woods by Jim Lindsay, V.P. Local Chapters
Things tend to slow down a bit in the summer due to
vacations and the like, but here is what is happening.
SAN FRANCISCO CPR is still focusing on promoting IRV
for governmental elections. A strategic
decision was made not to push to get it on the November 1998 ballot, because
there would not be enough time to educate the public prior to the
election. SF CPR meets monthly --
contact Wayne Shepard at 415/681-2580 or pauldebits@juno.com for more information.
ALAMEDA COUNTY CPR is focusing on getting non-governmental groups, especially
colleges and high schools, to use PR and IRV.
It is currently doing research and making contacts at several colleges
and high schools. It meets every two
months, contact Jim Lindsay at 510/527-8025 or jimlindsay@jerel.com for more information.
SANTA ROSA CPR has two new co-coordinators: Morgan Vierheller
(707/545-5011, mrgnsms@metro.net) and
Al Liner (707/579-5885). They will
start in September. We wish to thank
Cathy Allio, the outgoing coordinator, for all her hard work. Cathy plans to stay very active in the
chapter, but just can't do coordination right now.
CHAPTERS IN FORMATION !
Sacramento County has enough members to form a chapter, we need to find
one or two coordinators. Santa Clara
County has enough members, too, and we have one co-coordinator, David Olsen
(408/226-9425, david.olsen@idt.com),
but we still need one more. Contra
Costa County has almost enough members.
TRAINING
PROGRAM From October there will be seminars most
months. Some of these will be focused
on local chapter coordinators, others are suitable for those seriously
interested in PR. Tentative Schedule: October -- Speaking 201 Making a Basic PR Speech: November -- Leadership 101
Principles of Leadership: December
-- Organizing 101 Basic
Organizing: Details next issue!
If you live in any county that doesn't have a chapter
yet, and you'd be willing to coordinate or co-coordinate a chapter, call Jim
Lindsay at 510/527-8025.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CITIZENS FOR PROPORTIONAL
REPRESENTATION
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING - 23 MAY 1998
The 1998 AGM
took place in the meeting hall of the historic and beautiful Golden Gate Valley
public library in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. The over twenty attendees left-off basking
in the library's sunny courtyard to participate in the afternoon's business of
winding up a year's activities and
planning for the next.
Among those in
attendance were new student representatives from the University of California
at Santa Cruz and San Francisco State University. Libertarian, Peace and Freedom,
Green, Democrat, and Republican Party members came from Northern California
counties of Alameda, San Francisco, Santa Clara, and Contra Costa.
Alpine county
Professor Wilma Rule gave a focused presentation on a new book she is writing
on PR's usefulness in getting women elected.
She also told us of work she is
doing with women's organizations, such as the National Women's Political
Caucus, which are beginning to look at PR to increase representation of women
in Congress.
First order of business
was a short presentation by co-presidents Barbara Blong and Betty Traynor who
summed up the work of the past year and emphasized the importance of education
for the coming year.
Secondly,
vice-presidential updates were given.
Jim Lindsay explained local growth and activity, member- ship work, and
volunteer recruitment. Within his
national and state report, Steven Chessin discussed the status of the McKinney
Bill and his considerable progress working for PR within the California
Democratic Party, the national and California League of Women Voters, and the
California chapter of the National Organization for Women. Pete Martineau's administrative report and
Nat Lerner's newsletter/brochure reports were given in abstensia.
Finally, we
passed a fiscal year budget (June 1998 - May 1999) of $8500, based on a
projected income of approximately $6000 from renewals and donations, presented
by Treasurer, Marda Stothers.
There followed
an hour-long discussion of regional and national PR activities. Steve Hill, West Coast Director of the
Center for Voting and Democracy, told us about the Center's activities,
particularly its research on re-districting, and plans for the PR conference in
San Francisco in September (see accompanying article), co-sponsored by CV&D
and NCCPR.
While most of us
were deep in discussion, Steve Willits was using choice voting (formerly called
preference voting) to count the ballots for the nine new Board members. After 10 rounds with 55 qualified ballots
counted, Jim Lindsay, Steve Hill, Pete Martineau, Steve Chessin, Betty Traynor,
Barbara Blong, and Marda Stothers were re-elected, and Joan Strasser and
Richard Winger won first-time election.
The new by-law amendment to add Board members so all political parties
are represented passed 48 for with 4 opposed.
The last 30 minutes
of the meeting was a brain-storming session on a "To Do" list for the
coming year. Ideas included completing our informational brochure for tabling
and other uses, making sure Doug Amy's book, Real Choices, New Voices, and new
shortened booklet, Proportional Representation: The Case for a Better Election
System, are available in local public
libraries, as well as to chairs of political science departments, getting local
organizations to use or endorse choice voting, and getting more sponsors for the
McKinney Bill.
After the meeting, Richard Winger hosted
a great buffet supper party with fine foods prepared by Marda Stothers. Audio and video tapes about PR were listened
to, watched, and slept through (we have photos to prove it), during an evening of impassioned PR discussions. A great time was had by all and we hope next
year's AGM party features double the amount of salmon mousse.
SUSTAINER PROGRAM
Do you want to financially support NCCPR and
CV&D ? Then the Sustainer Program is for you!
You agree to a certain amount per month, and decide how much
goes to CPR and how much to CV&D. You can be billed monthly, every two,
three, four, or six months -- it is up to you! The minimum is $5 a month to
CPR. You will become a “Sustainer
Member”, and will be thanked publicly in the newsletter, but not billed in the
annual billing.
For details contact Jim Lindsay at 510/527-8025
Santa Clara County moves towards IRV
The Santa Clara County Charter Review Committee (CRC)
started meeting in Oct. 1997 to consider revisions to Santa Clara County's
charter. Two of the ideas proposed by
NCCPR members were switching to a system of
PR for the Board of Supervisors,
and using Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) for the other positions (Assessor, County
Sheriff, and District Attorney).
Currently, the Board is elected by district, and all elections require a
runoff in November if no one gets a majority in the June (or March) primary.
In March 1998
the CRC dropped proportional representation as "too complicated"
(their assessment), but was intrigued by the concept of IRV.
At its June 22nd
meeting the CRC decided to recommend amending the Charter to allow (but not
require) the use of IRV, once the
technology to handle it was available. (The county currently uses the punch card
PollStar system which is not amenable to IRV, but does plan to eventually
upgrade to a system that could accommodate IRV.)
This
recommendation will go before the Board of Supervisors at a public hearing
scheduled for August 4th. If the Supervisors
accept the recommendation, the proposal will be on the November ballot!
Voice for Democracy is published by Northern Californians for
Proportional Representation.
Our web site at http://worldview-bbs.com/~cpr/ has more up-to-date
information. Please submit articles/letters for publication to: c/o Nat Lerner,
Voice for Democracy, 1106 Pajaro Street, #4, Salinas, CA. 93901 or e-mail to
NL0916@sprynet.com.
Voice for Democracy
Northern California CPR
P.O. Box 128
Sacramento, California 95812