Voice for Democracy
Newsletter of Californians for Proportional
Representation
September-October 2000
On to November!
September is here.
Elections are coming. We are each back in a groove if we have one.
After a summer hiatus let's get back to work on PR! I'm excited about the
progress with the League of Women Voters study (see article).
Paula Lee of our Board did a fabulous job of getting voting systems onto the League study agenda. We have new brochures from CVD. The orange one on PR and the blue one on IRV. They are available for anyone to use. Contact Caleb Kleppner or Steve Hill. We held our second annual planning and strategy retreat and considered it a success. Rachel Richmond (from the staff of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors) volunteered her time and facilitated training for us and help us focus on strategic actions.
Our push this year in addition to the League study is to expand to Southern California. If any of our members know of activists in the Los Angeles or the San Diego area please talk to them. Several of our members attended and worked the conventions in Los Angeles to promote PR. David continues to work with the KPFA elections educating that constituency on PR. I'm very exciting and energized to hear the good things everyone is doing. Please keep it up and keep the word going.
Pass your successes and ideas to the Board and to the
website. Visit the website and use it to share information. The
Board and VPs meet regularly. If there are others who need our help or
want to hear more from us speak up. This organization exists to promote
PR and our success comes from good strategy and as the membership is equipped.
Marda Quon Stothers, co-President.
League of
Women Voters of the United States Adopts
Study of Elections Systems
The League of Women Voters adopted a study
of election systems at its national convention held in Washington D.C. this
summer. The League has organizations at the local, state and national
level and only takes positions on issues that have been thoroughly studied by
the membership and consensus on the position has been reached. The
organization can then advocate for League positions.
This study is the first step in this process
and when funded, every local League in the country will have an opportunity to
study our winner take all system as well as advanced election systems.
Currently there are four states that have adopted similar studies at the state
level. They are California, Washington, Georgia and Illinois.
The study will focus on election systems
used to elect legislative bodies and executive officers at all levels of
government. The League of Women Voters at the national level has not
adopted a national study in 10 years. Advocates of the study say this is a
major step toward the League's mission to encourage citizen participation in
government and the 80 year old League of Women Voters is the ideal organization
to conduct a national study of election systems. Paula Lee, Board member.
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor,
In response to Dr. Wilma Rule's latest first - the first Letter to the Editor
of "Voice of Democracy:"
First, AB 172 passed the assembly last year but died in Senator Dede Alpert's
education committee. It was subsequently gutted at Governor Davis'
behest. The bill did not include list PR; it only mentioned cumulative
voting and choice voting (STV). We do not know if Assembly member
Firebaugh will reintroduce his bill. Folks interested in reviving and
expanding this bill should contact Firebaugh, Alpert and Governor Davis.
Second, the League of Women Voters is doing exactly what Dr. Rule
suggests. The study committee developed an extensive list of criteria,
and the first step for locals is to select criteria for evaluating voting
systems. This has already begun. Locals will then apply the
criteria to all voting systems and see if they can reach consensus positions on
particular voting
systems.
Third, Dr. Rule raises her concerns about instant runoff voting, which she
believes CPR and CVD should not advocate. Since I, like many PR
activists, take Dr. Rule's advice and experience very seriously but
nevertheless differ with her on this point, this seemed like a good opportunity
to
explain why I support the advocacy of
IRV by CVD and CPR.
Briefly, although IRV is a majoritarian
system that would not significantly improve the representation of political
minorities, it represents a substantial improvement over plurality and runoff
elections, and it helps pave the way for future PR efforts.
I trust Dr. Rule appreciates the advantages of IRV over plurality and runoff
elections. I believe her opposition to IRV stems from a belief that
organizations dedicated to PR should not promote winner-take-all voting systems.
I agree with Dr. Rule that we should put all of our efforts into winning PR,
but I believe that promoting IRV can be the best way to achieve PR in the long
haul. That's why it makes sense for both CVD and CPR to dedicate
resources to both IRV and PR efforts.
The implementation of IRV would
accomplish several things:
1) Empower more voters to vote
sincerely for candidates they like
2) Reduce wasted votes
3) Introduce voters to ranking
candidates
4) Resolve problems with voting
equipment that is incompatible with ranked ballots
5) Show people that there are other
voting systems and they can work much better than the status quo.
All of these would give voters good reasons to consider and support PR.
Whenever we can make progress on PR, we should do so. But in places where
no one is listening to PR - if the media isn't interested, if politicians don't
perceive a problem that needs fixing and if the public isn't
interested - then promoting IRV may be
a better investment of our scarce resources.
History provides little guidance on these matters, but Australia did adopt
choice voting for national elections after IRV delivered disproportional
results. It's too soon to tell if this strategy will ultimately succeed
in the United States, but the possibility of IRV leading to PR and the growing
interest in IRV - legislation
introduced in 7 states and passed in 2 localities, IRV used in 2 national and 1
local nominations and numerous organizations supporting and using IRV - tells
me that we should continue this strategy.
Sincerely,
Caleb Kleppner, Majority Rule Project Director, Center for Voting and Democracy
EDITOR’S NOTE:
The views expressed in letters are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Californians for Proportional Representation, unless specifically stated by an authorized official.
News
Items from San Francisco
July 28, 2000
Item #1: At the retreat there was interest in knowing what
S.F. was doing about new voting equipment. According to an article in
last Saturday's (7/22) paper, the City has invested $3 million in a
"high-tech optical scanning system" manufactured by Election System
& Software of Omaha. It involves connecting lines or arrows next to
candidates names or Propositions to vote. The ballots are recorded on a
computer pack whose information will be transmitted to City Hall when polls
close. The City ordered 682 of these machines. They have been used
in San Mateo county since 1992. The Department of Elections had no printed
information available to the public when I visited the office last week, but they
are
anxious to demonstrate the new machines to groups.
Item #2: When IRV isn't Instant - The powerful Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, and Transgender Democratic Club used IRV to select their picks for
Supervisor for SF's upcoming District Elections. But the Club requires
that a candidate receive 60% of the vote and in the hotly contested District 6,
neither of the top two candidates reached the 60% majority and so they will
face a runoff August 22.
Betty Traynor, S.F. Local Coordinator
Speakers
Needed in the South
As we expand in Southern California, we have a need for people who can speak on PR, and, ideally train others to speak on PR in areas south of San Jose –notably San Diego and Los Angeles. If you have this ability and either live in Southern California or travel there then please contact Nat Lerner at 831-442-1238 or e-mail at natscottl@yahoo.com.
A
Berkeley Success Story
For almost a year, the LWV of Berkeley, Albany, and
Emeryville have been conducting a study of IRV. The chapter recently held two meetings that all members were
invited to attend ("units") to review the study committee's findings,
and to see if a consensus could be reached.
In the units, a consensus *was* reached that the League should support IRV and
should work for its adoption in Berkeley (the study was only about
local elections). This is a great success, and we are very pleased with
the results. We were pleasantly surprised: even some highly skeptical
people were convinced that IRV is superior to plurality and runoff. In
fact, in each unit, the members that attended wanted stronger language than we
proposed!
This is not absolutely final, but we believe we have jumped the biggest
hurdle. Next, the
(continued on page 4)
Local Chapter Contacts
South Bay
Chapter Contact is Jim Stauffer (408)-432-9148 /email at jstauffer@igc.org
San Francisco
Chapter Contact is Betty Traynor (415)-558-8133/email at
btraynor@energy-net.org
East Bay
Chapter Contact is David Greene (510)-841-6761/email at david@diana.lbl.gov
North Bay Chapter
Contact is Wayne Shepard (707)-5520-5317/email at pauldebits@juno.com
Vice-President of Local Chapters is Nat Lerner (831) 442-1238 /email at natscottl@yahoo.com
************************************************
Voice for Democracy is published by Californians for Proportional
Representation (prior to May 2000 Northern California Citizens for Proportional
Representation). Our web site at http://www.fairvoteca.org may have more up to date
information. Please submit articles or letters for publication to: c/o Nat
Lerner, Voice for Democracy, 68 Penzance Street, Salinas, CA. 93906 or e-mail
to natscottl@yahoo.com
************************************************
(continued from page 3) ... consensus report will go to the League's Executive Board, and then to a larger membership meeting in September that will take the vote to officially adopt it as a League position.
Old-timers in the League tell us that almost always,
though, after a thorough study and units that take such a strong position, that
the Board and then the membership go along with the units.
So, this bodes well for the future of IRV (and then PR) in Berkeley! The
League has tremendous credibility. Our League may adopt this as an action
item, but even if they don't, we activists will be well positioned to start
some serious lobbying of the Berkeley City Council. I imagine that the
Council will refer it to one or more committee, such as the Charter Review
Committee. Then it will be placed on the ballot, perhaps in 2001 or 2002.
Study committee members were mostly, but not all, CPR members. This was
information we didn't hide. Many of us are not strangers in the League,
and so we had quite a bit of credibility even though we are CPR members that
advocate IRV & PR.
If you have any IRV supporters who are also active in your League, you are well
positioned for a study in your area. It isn't that time consuming -- our
group met once a month for a year. And it can be very rewarding. If
you have more specific questions about the League's process, I suggest you
contact Jean Safir (jeansafir@att.ent)
or Steve Chessin (steve.chessin@eng.sun).
Jim Lindsay
Voice for Democracy
CPR
P.O. Box 128
Sacramento, California 95812