Choice Voting Blog

After 6 long months, the Davis Governance Task Force will finally present its very positive choice voting recommendation! They will discuss it with the Davis City Council on Tuesday, April 5 starting around 7PM.

Definitely come to learn, show support, and witness this historic event! This is the time to show your support!

The event will last one hour and be at Davis city hall (the council chambers at 5th and B). Public comment is also welcome. And when you come, be sure to smile, and also bring a friend!

Be sure to check out State Senator Debra Bowen's press release about her new bill SB 596. SB 596 would let any city, county, or special district use ranked voting for their elections.

Right now California lets only chartered cities and counties use choice voting. Since Davis and Yolo County are not chartered, SB 596 would make passing choice voting even easier! Ask our State Senator Mike Machado and our Assemblymember Lois Wolk to support SB 596!

Tune in to DCTV over the next couple weeks to learn more about choice voting! DCTV Channel 15 will air a 30 minute locally-produced program about ranked voting several more times during the next couple weeks:

• Thursday, March 31 at 5PM
• Monday, April 4 at 6:30PM
• Thursday, April 7 at 5PM
• Monday, April 11 at 6:30PM

The show features Frank Maurer and Chris Jerdonek and was produced by DCTV. Thanks again DCTV for supporting choice voting!

The Davis Governance Task Force will meet one or two more times to finalize the wording of their written report: Tuesday, March 29 and Monday, April 4. Both meetings will start at 7PM and be at the Davis Community Chambers (city council chambers).

On Tuesday, April 5 the Task Force will deliver their report to the Davis City Council as an information item without discussion. And on Tuesday, April 12, there will be a workshop between the Task Force and the City Council from 7:00-8:30PM during the City Council meeting. The public is allowed to comment during this workshop, so please mark this on your calendar and come to show support!

The Davis Governance Task Force will be having its final meeting tonight at 7PM at the Davis City Chambers. Tonight votes will be finalized and the Task Force's recommendations will be set in stone. Every indication is that the choice voting recommendation will be strong. Here is the agenda.

Two good letters to the editor were published yesterday, one by ASUCD Senator Rob Roy in the California Aggie, and one by Chris Jerdonek in the Davis Enterprise. Nice work, Rob and Chris!

The Davis Governance Task Force will have its second last meeting on Monday at 7PM at the Hattie Weber museum. At the last meeting, they resoundingly recommended at-large choice voting for Davis City Council elections! They also recommended a city charter if necessary for choice voting.

They'll now move on to other issues, like how the mayor of Davis should be selected. Here is the agenda.

Note the change of location: the Hattie Weber museum is at 445 C Street, which is at the northeast corner of Central Park (the Farmer's Market), at the corner of 5th and C. Come on by and show your appreciation for their work!

Jim Schwab has organized a Davis Citizens for Representation meeting for this Saturday at 1 at Cafe Roma (the one by campus at A and 3rd). Stop on by!

ASUCD Senator and DCR member Rob Roy was featured in Aggie Style yesterday. Rob is pictured wearing an "I LOVE CHOICE VOTING" t-shirt that he designed himself.

Nice picture, Rob...and nice shirt! Hopefully Rob will be making many more. Just send him an e-mail if you want your own!

At tonight's meeting, the Davis Governance Task Force voted resoundingly to recommend at-large choice voting for Davis City Council elections. The vote was nearly unanimous (8-0-1), with just one abstention. The vote came early in the meeting and was met with applause.

About 40 members of the community, both young and old, attended the meeting in support of choice voting. Students were also well-represented. 5 of the 8 newly-elected ASUCD Senators came (Kristen Birdsall, Kyle Keene, Rob Roy, Avi Singh, and Nadeah Vali), as did the newly-elected ASUCD President (Caliph Assagai). Davis Citizens for Representation educated all who attended with this flier.

Before the vote, Yolo County Registrar Freddie Oakley responded to 25 minutes of questions from the Task Force about implementing choice voting. Freddie responded that choice voting will be well within her office's capability to administer.

Also during the meeting, the Task Force unanimously rejected switching to district elections. The Task Force will finish drafting their recommendation at their March 14 and 21 meetings, and present their recommendation to the Davis City Council on Tuesday, April 5.

AGTV filmed the meeting in its entirety. Special thanks to AGTV for coming out to the meeting, and many thanks also go to the Task Force for learning so much about this issue over the past five months!

The Davis Enterprise has two very nice, extended articles topping off the front page of today's paper. The first is a very good account of the history of choice voting at UC Davis, written by Sharon Stello. The other article is a nice focus on the deliberations of the Davis Governance Task Force, written by Beth Curda.

The paper also features a great op-ed written by Stephen Sosnick called "Seven reasons not to switch to district elections." Stephen Sosnick is a professor emeritus at UC Davis, and his op-ed also supports choice voting. Great job, Steve!

Grab a copy of today's Sunday Enterprise for just $.50!

The agenda for this Monday's Davis Governance Task Force meeting is available here. The meeting is Monday, March 7, at 7PM in the City Council Chambers at 5th and B.

In addition to Task Force discussion, Monday's meeting will feature a Q&A with Freddie Oakley, our county registrar, about implementing choice voting. Freddie is very positive and open-minded about choice voting. We are very lucky to have her here in Yolo County!

At last night's Senate meeting, the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD) was presented with Californians for Electoral Reform's Wilma Rule Award.

The Wilma Rule Award recognizes the Association's work in "advancing the cause of Proportional Representation in California by overwhelmingly adopting the Choice Voting Amendment and electing their Senators using Choice Voting." Wilma Rule (1925-2004) was a professor and activist who worked tirelessly to advance the cause of women and minority representation through proportional representation.

Frank Maurer of Californians for Electoral Reform presented the award to outgoing ASUCD President Kalen Gallagher and incoming ASUCD President Caliph Assagai, immediately after eight new ASUCD Senators were sworn in. The timing was particularly fitting. Congratulations, ASUCD!

This Sunday, March 6 from 4-5:30PM, there will be a choice voting teach-in/organizing meeting at the Lake Shore Apartments club house. Lake Shore is in West Davis at 1175 Lake Blvd. All are welcome!

The Aggie published a strong endorsement of choice voting for Davis city council elections today. Check it out!

At their next board meeting, the Davis Food Co-op will decide whether to support choice voting for Co-op board elections. They will vote on whether to place a choice voting amendment on their May ballot, and on whether to endorse the amendment. Thanks to Board member Darius Pazirandeh for introducing the amendment!

Coincidentally, the board meeting is happening the same time as the Davis Governance Task Force meeting. The board meeting will begin at 7PM on Monday, March 7 at the Davis Food Co-op conference room. Public comment is at the beginning of the meeting. They will consider the choice voting measure at 9PM.

Over 8000 households belong to the Co-op. Their board has 9 members. Board elections are staggered and held every year. All members in good standing can vote.

Yolo county resident Frank Maurer recently sent this letter to State Senator Michael Machado and other officials in the Capitol. The letter explains reasons why the use of choice voting in state elections can save money for both candidates and the state of California.

Since voters can rank their full preferences in just one election, a second election isn't necessary. This saves the state millions of dollars. Moreover, candidates can fundraise and campaign only once, and voters need vote only once. Together with multi-member districts, choice voting eliminates corruption in the gerrymandering process.

Campaign dynamics in choice voting elections also change. Choice voting encourages a positive atmosphere. Candidates can work together and campaign more positively. This discourages costly negative campaigns. On top of that, multi-member districts mean a lower winning threshold. So less resources are needed to win.

Nice letter, Frank!

"Get the Word Out!" Proportional voting with Frank Maurer and Chris Jerdonek will show on DCTV channel 15 on

• Thursday, March 3 from 5-5:30PM
• Monday, March 7 from 6:30-7PM

Chris is a member of Davis Citizens for Representation, and Frank is a member of Californians for Electoral Reform. The show is produced by DCTV.

DVDs of the show are available by contacting DCR. Stay tuned!