Blair Bobier: All Related Content

The San Leandro City Council once again approved of moving forward with Ranked Choice Voting at their meeting last night.

It’s a good thing they did.

In a landmark opinion issued late on Friday, Federal District Court Judge Richard Seeborg upheld the constitutionality of San Francisco’s Ranked Choice Voting method, the first time a federal court has weighed in on the subject of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV).

SAN FRANCISCO--A federal judge said today he was "not inclined" to issue an injunction against San Francisco's Ranked Choice Voting system.

On Thursday, a federal judge will give the first public airing of a lawsuit challenging the particular methodology of San Francisco’s Ranked Choice Voting system.

Berkeley's decision Tuesday night to use Instant Runoff Voting for the 2010 elections marks a clean sweep for IRV in the East Bay this year. On Tuesday night, by an 8-1 vote of its city council, Berkeley became the third city in Alameda County since the beginning of the New Year to officially adopt Instant Runoff Voting. Last month, both the Oakland and San Leandro city councils approved using IRV for local elections starting this year.

An out-of-left-field lawsuit has been filed against San Francisco’s use of Instant Runoff Voting claiming, of all things, that voters aren’t given enough choices on their ballots. IRV is also known as Ranked Choice Voting and, for those unfamiliar with it, allows voters to rank their three top candidate choices on the ballot in order of preference.

Here in California, crisis is giving way to opportunity. The state's apocalyptic budget situation has yielded an equally dramatic solution: retooling state government through a citizen-initiated constitutional convention.

The rest of the country would be wise not only to pay attention, but to follow suit. California, the ungovernable, holds lessons for the United States, the ungovernable. And if history is any guide, what happens in California – from political movements to cultural revolutions to technological innovations – winds up being replicated throughout the nation.

The New America Foundation today congratulated the people and city of San Leandro, California for being the latest city in Alameda County to decide to use Instant Runoff Voting for local elections this year.

"This is a momentous decision which will benefit not only San Leandro but also hundreds of thousands of East Bay voters beyond the city limits," said Blair Bobier, Deputy Director of the New America Foundation's Political Reform Program.

California’s Secretary of State gave the green light today for Alameda County to conduct Instant Runoff Voting elections for the November 2010 General Election. This means that two Alameda County cities, Oakland and Berkeley, and possibly a third (San Leandro) will be using IRV next year.

With Mayor Kevin Johnson's strong-mayor proposal headed for the ballot and a Charter Review Committee examining potential changes to city government, now is the perfect time to consider whether Sacramento's method of electing local officials serves the best interests of its citizens.