Choice Voting Blog

There is an effort underway to use the Countback system within ASUCD to fill vacancies. Who would take the place of the newly elected Senators if Countback elections were held? With StoveTop modified to support Countback, we can answer this question:

The threshold for the countback election is 442 votes, unless otherwise noted.

• Rob Roy's spot
  • Teresa Kenny
  • Final votes: 363.0

• Avi Singh's spot
  • Jonathon Leathers
  • Final votes: 241.6

• Ari Kalfayan's spot
  • Kale Jenks
  • Final votes: 335.2

• Kristen Birdsall's spot
  • Paul Ivanov
  • Final votes: 390.0

• Cindy Yu's spot
  • Kale Jenks
  • Final votes: 326.2

• Eric Fox's spot (threshold: 425)
  • Jonathon Leathers
  • Final votes: 247.1

• Kyle Keene's spot
  • Devin Whitney
  • Final votes: 394.0

• Nadeah Vali's spot (threshold: 427)
  • Ann Marie Sanchez
  • Final votes: 306.7

Congratulations to Caliph Assagai and Darnell Holloway, the next ASUCD President and Vice President. Caliph and Darnell are strong supporters of choice voting for the city of Davis and made this part of their campaign.

Congratulations also to new Senators Kristen Birdsall, Eric Fox, Ari Kalfayan, Kyle Keene, Rob Roy, Avi Singh, Nadeah Vali, and Cindy Yu. At least six of them are strong supporters of choice voting for the city of Davis: Avi, Cindy, Nadeah, Kyle, Kristen, and Rob; and the others may be, too!

The ASUCD Winter 2005 Election is now over. Due to unusual circumstances, Davis Citizens for Representation (DCR) has made not one but two special reports available to the public:

• Election Report with Rob Roy Included in the Tally
• Election Report with Rob Roy Excluded from the Tally

In the second report, Rob Roy is withdrawn, or excluded, from the count. In other words, all ballot preferences for Roy were skipped over in the choice voting tally. In the end, the ASUCD Elections Committee decided to include Rob Roy.

The Presidential race is not included.

The election results were announced at 11:40AM. DCR posted these reports at 12:12PM.

The audio clips for Wednesday's Senate candidate forum are now posted (2-3 minutes apiece). Check them out in the Feb. 17 blog entry below. Thanks for listening!

Tuesday is the last Davis Governance Task Force meeting before Monday, March 7, when they will decide whether or not to recommend choice voting for Davis City Council elections. The meeting is from 7-9PM in the Davis Community Chambers (5th and B). Monday's agenda is available from the task force web site.

The main topic of discussion will be chartering. About 25% of California's 500 cities are chartered. Charter cities are cities that have their own "constitution," or charter. Becoming chartered would let the city of Davis use choice voting more easily. This is one reason it's good for Davis to become chartered.

Today's Aggie reports that both ASUCD Presidential tickets endorsed the Countback process to fill Senate vacancies:

"Both parties agreed that the Countback amendment was a good solution for when senators resign."

The Presidential tickets are Caliph Assagai and Darnell Holloway (LEAD), and Sapana Shende and Jenni Beeman (Student Focus). The Countback process uses choice voting to preserve accurate representation, even after a resignation.

AUDIO: MP3 audio - 2:36 and MP3 audio - 3:22

ASUCD Senate candidates participated in a candidate forum on Wednesday afternoon. A video of the forum can be viewed online at the AGTV web site. Just click on "Senate Forum 2/16." Many candidates spoke eloquently in support of choice voting during the forum--including Cindy Yu, Devin Whitney, and Chad Van Schoelandt pictured above.

21:30 into the forum, a question about choice voting education was asked (second audio above). 3 out of 4 candidates responded positively about choice voting. They were Pedro Hernandez (Friends), Eric Fox (Independent), and Kristen Birdsall (Friends).

35:00 into the forum, a question about campus-community relations was asked (first audio above). 3 out of 4 candidates responded that choice voting for city council elections was an important part of the solution. They were Cindy Yu (Focus), Devin Whitney (LEAD), and Chad VanSchoelandt (Friends).

Slate names are in parentheses.

The Davis City Council discussed filling the vacant alternate position on the Davis Governance Task Force at Tuesday's February 15 meeting . They largely discussed appointing DCR member Chris Jerdonek, who has been attending all the task force meetings.

Mayor Ruth Asmundson originally suggested the idea at the February 8 council meeting, when task force Chair Mike Levy delivered the group's interim report. Here is the audio for that meeting: MP3 audio - 17:46 long. The proceedings can also be watched on video from the council web site, starting 3:04-3:05 into the meeting.

At this week's meeting, council members Stephen Souza and Sue Greenwald introduced a motion to fill the vacancy, but the motion failed 2-3, with Ruth Asmundson, Ted Puntillo, and Don Saylor voting no. The audio for that segment is here: MP3 audio - 10:28 long. Again, the video is on the council web site. The segment starts 5:23 into the meeting.

UC Davis students will hold their fourth choice voting election from February 23-25. Candidate statements are now online at the ASUCD Elections web site.

Many ASUCD candidates actively support the use of choice voting in Davis City Council elections. The LEAD slate, historically one of the two major slates, supports the idea. In particular, LEAD Presidential ticket Caliph Assagai and Darnell Holloway (both current ASUCD Senators) highlight their support in their candidate statement.

ASUCD Senate candidates listing their support include Avanindar "Avi" Singh (President of Davis College Democrats), Jonathan Leathers (President of Davis College Green Party), and Rob Roy. All stand a good chance of being elected.

In addition, ASUCD Senate candidates Jonathan Leathers and Teresa Kenny list their support for the choice voting "countback" process to fill Senate vacancies. The countback process takes advantage of choice voting's unique ability to represent voter preferences accurately.

Efforts are underway at UCLA to move their student government to a 20-member student Senate elected by choice voting. They are calling it the Hare system, which is another name for choice voting, or single transferable voting. See this Daily Bruin article for UCLA coverage of the effort.

The effort in British Columbia, Canada is also moving along, with a province-wide choice voting referendum happening this May. British Columbia's 160-member Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform recommended choice voting 146-7 last fall after studying different voting systems for 11 months. Check out this cool flash animation created by the assembly to educate BC citizens about choice voting.

Here are three more web sites with more information on the BC referendum: the BC Citizens' Assembly alumni page, STV for BC (campaign site), and Fair Voting BC (education site).

At next Tuesday night's Davis City Council meeting, the council will decide whether to appoint a new alternate to the Davis Governance Task Force, since Task Force member Shirley Concolino resigned.

Here is the agenda item. It is a regular item on the agenda:

"Item 12 - Appointment of Alternate to Governance Task Force., (City Manager Jim Antonen)) Comment: The Task Force was formed in September, 2004. There has been nine meetings held by the Task Force. Due to resignation of a member of the Task Force, Council has requested that a alternate be appointed. Recommendation: Appoint alternate."

Regular items will begin at 7:30PM with item 5. Item 12 above is the last item.

At the last meeting, the council joked that the vacancy could be filled using choice voting! :)

Davis Governance Task Force Chair Mike Levy gave the Task Force's interim report to the Davis City Council on Tuesday night. A video of the report can be seen online here. You need to select the Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2005 entry from the video archive. You want to start watching around 3:04-3:05 (3 hours+) into the meeting, or else select the Governance Report item from the table of contents. Positive remarks and questions were stated in connection with choice voting.

The next Davis Governance Task Force meeting is Monday, February 7 at 7PM in the Davis Community Chambers (5th and B). It will mostly be about commission issues rather than election issues. You can see the agenda at the Task Force web site.

The Aggie printed an informative and well-written article on the Countback system today. Countback is a system of filling ASUCD vacancies that takes advantage of Choice Voting's main benefits. DCR members and other democracy advocates have done good work in publicizing the Countback solution.

Also take a look at a recent letter to the editor that appeared in AsianWeek, the San Francisco weekly. The letter was written by a DCR co-founder.

DCR presented a document to the Davis Governance Task Force at their meeting yesterday. The document outlines options to select Davis's mayor that are compatible with choice voting elections for council. The task force requested this information at an earlier meeting. It was well-received.

Several members of the public spoke in favor of choice voting and ranked voting methods in general, including Ken Bloom, ASUCD Senator Donald Cohen-Cutler, Avi Singh, Professor Emeritus Stephen Sosnick, and Joseph Stewart. ASUCD President Kalen Gallagher also acknowledged choice voting's benefits. He was invited by the task force to speak separately on the issue of student concerns.