On April 29, 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, and the short version is this: Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, the federal law that has protected voters from unfair maps for sixty years, has been significantly narrowed. For decades, if a district map had the effect of diluting the voices of minority voters, those voters could go to court. After Callais, plaintiffs now have to prove the people who drew the map intended to discrimi

Summary California cities use six distinct local election systems — from plurality voting to Ranked Choice Voting — each with very different rules about whether a winner needs a majority and how many voters actually participate in the decisive round. Turnout is the hidden variable that determines how representative your local election really is: primaries average as little as 10–17% voter turnout, while November elections can reach 5x that level. Plurality voting , used in m

How Proportional Ranked Choice Voting eliminates gerrymandering, preserves voter choice, and keeps elections fair for everyone. California's Conversation About Fair Representation With the passing of Proposition 50, California has entered a new phase in the long-running debate over gerrymandering and fair representation. Prop 50 temporarily hands redistricting power back to the Legislature—allowing elected officials to draw new congressional maps—after years of maps drawn by

In a 10-1 vote, the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission recommended that the city adopt ranked choice voting for mayor, City Council, and other city offices beginning in 2032. The recommendation was part of a broader package of government reforms, including expanding the size of the City Council. The LA RCV Coalition, led by Cal RCV and More Equitable Democracy, has been leading the push for RCV in Los Angeles. Read FairVote's full news release for more details.

Cal RCV supports national legislation that would modernize U.S. House elections by replacing single-winner districts with multi-member districts elected by proportional ranked choice voting. Why This Is Important The Fair Representation Act (FRA) would fundamentally transform how Americans elect their representatives to Congress. This federal reform offers California voters a rare opportunity: a single legislative change that would address multiple democratic crises simultane

The LA Charter Reform Commission is weighing a major change: expanding the City Council and switching to proportional ranked choice voting. PRCV would replace costly, low-turnout runoffs with a single election and make council races more competitive and inclusive. Candidates who advance to runoffs need nearly twice as much public matching money, so consolidating elections could save millions as the council grows. Read the full story at CityWatch LA for more details.

California is ready for fairer, more representative elections—and the momentum is growing. Watch Cal RCV’s October 2025 meeting for an inside look at how Los Angeles can learn from Portland, OR. Robin Ye, a Portland city council candidate and election reform leader, shares firsthand insights on Portland’s groundbreaking use of Proportional Ranked Choice Voting (PRCV). Portland’s 2024 election was a turning point: more voters saw their ballots count, more communities earned re

Former Santa Monica Mayor Michael Feinstein argues that Los Angeles should expand its City Council and elect members by proportional ranked choice voting in multi-seat districts. He says winner-take-all districts pit communities against each other, while in Portland's three-seat PRCV elections, 87% of voters helped elect at least one winner. Feinstein contends an independent redistricting commission is necessary but not enough without ending zero-sum, single-seat races. Read

This piece in The Hill argues that single-member districts make gerrymandering, intentional or not, impossible to escape, because geographic sorting of voters produces safe seats even without partisan map-drawing. Even California, whose independent commission has largely ended partisan gerrymandering, has only a handful of competitive congressional districts. Proportional multi-member districts would make gerrymandering prohibitively hard, and Cal RCV sees proportional ranked

On Wednesday, February 9th 2022, our panelists joined moderator Tom Charron of the California RCV Coalition to discuss the state of voting in California and our nation as a whole. Ranked Choice Voting provides a unique opportunity to increase voter choice at the ballot box and discourage the divisive political practices that have become standard in American politics. Our three panelists have unique insight into the problems with our current elections system and a passion for