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.

Sacramento currently uses a two-round runoff system to elect its mayor and City Council, with the first election in June and a runoff election in November, if no candidate wins a majority of votes in June. The clincher here is that City Council races almost never go to a runoff – candidates routinely sew up their victories during the first election in June.

Voter turnout for the June election, however, is roughly half of what it is in November. This means that very few Sacramentans are actually participating in the decisive elections that determine who will represent them.

Races for mayor are a different story. These races went to runoff elections in 2008 and 2000. While these runoffs are important to ensure that the winner is supported by a majority of voters, conducting two separate elections is an expensive proposition for both taxpayers and candidates.

The taxpayers wind up footing the bill for two separate elections and candidates have to raise money for what are essentially two separate campaigns. The considerable expense of mounting two campaigns – and the attendant fundraising that goes with it – might be barriers for many community-minded individuals who would otherwise be inclined to serve their city.

Although the elections for City Council and mayor present two different problems – low voter turnout for the former and a hefty price tag for the latter – they share a common solution: "instant runoff voting."

If Sacramento switched to instant runoff voting, it could combine two rounds of elections into one, allowing the City Council to be elected at the high-turnout November election and eliminating one unnecessary and expensive election for mayor.

Here's how instant runoff voting works: Instead of voting for just one candidate, voters rank candidates on the ballot in order of preference, marking their first choice, second choice, third choice, and so on.

A candidate who wins a majority of first-choice rankings is elected. If, however, no candidate receives an initial majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice rankings is eliminated. That candidate's supporters have their votes count for their second choice. The votes are counted again to see if any candidate has a majority. If not, the process repeats until a candidate emerges with majority support.

San Francisco has been using instant runoff voting successfully since 2004 and has saved millions of dollars by eliminating its low-turnout runoff elections. Furthermore, in 2008, San Franciscans elected the most diverse Board of Supervisors in the city's history. Instant runoff voting may well have contributed to that diversity by encouraging more candidates to seek office, increasing voter turnout and eliminating the spoiler dynamic from district elections. Sacramento enjoys a diversity not unlike San Francisco's and might similarly benefit from using instant runoff voting.

A number of jurisdictions using instant runoff voting have found that this voting method improves the tenor of campaigns and, in some instances, has actually resulted in candidates cooperating on the campaign trail. Unlike a head-to-head runoff election, where mudslinging can be very effective, instant runoff voting presents candidates and voters with an entirely different situation.

Candidates who might need the support – and second-preference votes – from their opponents' supporters in order to win have an incentive to conduct more civil campaigns. In San Francisco – and in Minneapolis, which just conducted its first instant runoff election – candidates have campaigned together and have sponsored joint appearances and fundraising events.

By improving and lowering the cost of campaigns, instant runoff voting has the potential to encourage more citizens to seek public office in Sacramento. This, in turn, could generate increased interest in city governance, enhanced public dialogue about the critical issues facing the city and better representation for all Sacramentans.

Instant runoff voting deserves the attention of voters, Charter Review Committee members and city officials – all of whom should be interested in seeing a City Council that mirrors the population and is elected using the most sensible and cost-effective method possible.