RCV News: Something Rotten at City Hall: How District Elections Skewed Big Vote on Rent Control; Winners & Losers
6 days ago
1 min read
Columnist Jerry Roberts uses Santa Barbara's 4-3 rent control vote to show how district elections can hand power to a council majority that represents far fewer voters: the four members in favor won 10,728 votes combined in their last races, while the three opposed won 19,083. He calls on the next council to put electoral reforms before voters, including ranked choice voting and a mix of citywide and district seats. Proportional ranked choice voting, which fills several seats at once so each group of voters wins a fair share, is one way to close that gap between votes and seats, and Cal RCV sees it as the best fit for California and the country.
