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Imagine if, in the voting booth, you could rank your first, second, and third-choice candidates. That's only one element of a different form of balloting the Los Angeles Ethics Commission is considering for city elections. Details from KPCC's Cheryl Devall.

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The idea is to eliminate costly runoff elections by when no one candidate lands more than fifty percent of the vote. Instant Runoff Voting drops the candidate with the least first-choice votes, then transfers the second-choice votes to the remaining candidates. The process continues in election-night recounts until a majority winner emerges. Right now, Los Angeles conducts two-round runoff elections for city offices. City Clerk Frank Martinez said the runoffs have cost almost 18-Million dollars during a 12-year period, and he told the Ethics Commission he'd love to handle elections in one shot, as San Francisco has done for the last three years. LA's ethics commission plans to take up the matter again at its meeting next month, when it'll also discuss this month's elections. Fewer than 8 percent of registered voters turned out to cast ballots for LA Unified school board, the community college board and various municipal races.

Cheryl Devall, 89-point-3, KPCC.