The best thing California could do is cancel the election Nov 5, 2022 "We also could implement structural changes. Instead of running two redundant sets of elections under the state’s top two system, we could use ranked choice voting with instant runoffs in June, and determine winners in just one round." -- Joe Mathews Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of The People's Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy and coauthor of the book California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix it . Read the full article at: https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/11/05/mathews-the-best-thing-california-could-do-is-cancel-the-election/ All News & Updates

Ranked Choice Voting Leads to Diverse Representation for our LGBTQ+ Community Apr 16, 2024 Santa Clara LGBTQ+ leaders speak out As we have talked to voters in Santa Clara County, some have asked whether Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) leads to more elected representation for the LGBTQ+ Community. The data shows that RCV does lead to more LGBTQ+ candidates being elected into office. How does changing our elections help elect more LGBTQ+ candidates? It’s simple: RCV makes it easier for nontraditional candidates to run and win. LGBTQ+ candidates face no penalty when running against others of the same sexual orientation or gender identity – no more “splitting the vote” within the LGBTQ+ community. RCV also lets us get rid of the primary, with its older, more conservative, and less diverse electorate, and elect majority winners in the high-turnout election in November. RCV has led to more LGBTQ+ people being elected into office across the country, regardless of that region’s political ideology. Salt Lake City, in the heart of conservative Utah, used RCV for the first time for their City Council elections in 2021. RCV enabled Salt Lake City’s voters to elect a history-making Council with a super-majority of minority representation. 4 of 7 Councilmembers are openly LGBTQ+ and another 4 of 7 are people of color. In 2021, progressive New York City elected its first 3 lesbian women of color to its City Council. Locally, BAYMEC’s Board of Directors has enthusiastically endorsed Ranked Choice Voting for Santa Clara County. As Executive Board Secretary Allie Hughes notes, “BAYMEC endorsed Ranked Choice Voting because it removes barriers to entry for candidates from underrepresented communities. By leveling the playing field, RCV has led to more LGBTQ+ folks being elected, increasing the queer community’s representation.” We hope that you will stand with BAYMEC and the California RCV Coalition and support Ranked Choice Voting for Santa Clara County! All News & Updates

Bay Area should embrace ranked-choice voting movement Nov 16, 2022 System strengthens the principle of majority rule and discourages negative campaigning The San Jose Mercury News Editorial Board writes: "Ranked-choice voting carries multiple advantages, especially in primary elections that yield low voter turnout and consistently hurt minority candidates running for office. It also gives voters greater say in who is elected. The current system works fine when only two candidates are on the ballot. But in an election with multiple candidates, which often occurs in a primary election, a candidate can win with only 20%-30 % of the vote. That means a majority of voters did not choose the winner. Too often that favors extremist candidates and/or candidates who engage in negative campaigning." Read the full article at: https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/11/16/editorial-ranked-choice-voting-santa-clara-county/ All News & Updates

Santa Clara County considering ranked-choice voting Jun 5, 2024 Santa Clara County is considering a fundamental change to voting, which is moving to a ranked-choice voting model. "South Bay congressman Ro Khanna said he is for it. “Sometimes having the person who can build the most consensus is important and ranked choice voting just makes that easier. So, now you can’t just talk to the far right or the far left. You’ve got to talk to everyone,” he said. Santa Clara County plans to take up the issue this summer, while Khanna said he hopes the Voter Choice Act can be addressed before the November election. Overall, ranked choice voting has been picking up momentum and is now used in 50 cities and counties in 14 states." Watch the segment at https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/santa-clara-county-considering-ranked-choice-voting/3558649/ All News & Updates

California can never win a race to the bottom with Trump on redistricting Aug 10, 2025 First, California and its Democrats should enact proportional representation, the fairest way to divide up legislative seats. “First, California and its Democrats should enact proportional representation, the fairest way to divide up legislative seats. Right now, Republicans get about 40% of the votes for Congress and the Legislature in California, but they have less than one-quarter of the representatives. That’s because the current winner-take-all system awards each legislative district only one representative.” https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/legislature-redistricting-california-democrat-20807347.php This article is behind a paywall. All News & Updates

Cal RCV Strategy Meeting - October 2025 Oct 21, 2025 Guest speakers shared insights on the PRCV rollout in Portland and updates on RCV progress in California 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 representation, and candidates built coalitions instead of divisions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3kS3R-Kj1c Cal RCV's Executive Director, Marcela Miranda-Caballero, also connects the dots back to Los Angeles. She outlines how Portland’s success strengthens our push to get PRCV on the LA ballot in the coming years. All News & Updates

Baffled by the mayor’s race? Here's how to be a tactical ranked-choice voter Oct 16, 2024 Ranked-choice voting works as a powerful system that narrows a crowded field of candidates through a series of computer-assisted instant runoffs. “Here’s my suggestion: Rank as many candidates as you can of these top five. It’s important to know that your lower rankings cannot hurt your top one; you stay with your top choice provided that person is not eliminated. But if your candidate does get sent home, your vote switches to your next choice. You’re still in the race.” Read the op-ed at https://sfstandard.com/opinion/2024/10/16/how-to-be-a-tactical-ranked-choice-voter/ All News & Updates

Ranked Choice Voting and Communities of Color Research Jan 17, 2024 New Report Shows Evidence that Ranked Choice Voting Benefits Candidates and Voters of Color Ranked choice voting (RCV) has measurable positive impacts for voters and candidates of color, a new FairVote report finds. The report examines 448 ranked choice voting elections across 20 years – a testament to the staggering growth this movement has seen over the last two decades. Key findings from the report include: Candidates of color benefit from the RCV counting process, gaining more support as lower-performing candidates are eliminated. RCV allows several candidates of color to run in the same race without “splitting the vote.” Voters of color tend to rank more candidates than White voters. Naturalized citizens and permanent residents support ranked choice voting and proportional representation. These findings build on research and election data showing that candidates of color are more likely to win RCV contests, and several previous surveys showing high support for RCV among Black and Latino voters. Watch a 5 min overview of the research findings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZhSPqfxd0c All News & Updates

New Bay Area ranked choice voting system worked, should be California model Jan 14, 2023 State’s small cities should take note of November success in Albany’s multi-seat City Council race Albany Mayor Aaron Tiedemann penned an op-ed about the city's successful first election using Proportional Ranked Choice Voting: "Our city just elected two City Council members using a voting system new to California. The process provides a model for small cities across the state that want to diversify their governing boards without carving up their communities into tiny voting districts." Read the full article at https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/01/14/opinion-new-ranked-choice-voting-system-worked-should-be-california-model/ All News & Updates

Voter Turnout Flounders in Sacramento Primaries Nov 28, 2023 "Sacramento, California has a voter turnout problem. Turnout in its primaries is much lower than in its general elections, and the primary electorate is less representative of Sacramento’s population – underrepresenting young voters and renters. Sacramento could join other California cities, and solve this problem by consolidating its elections into a single, high-turnout contest with ranked choice voting." Our friends at FairVote published new research on the voter turnout gap in Sacramento's primaries at https://fairvote.org/voter-turnout-flounders-in-sacramento-primaries/ Learn more about the efforts to fix this primary problem using Ranked Choice Voting at http://www.betterballotsacramento.org/ All News & Updates

Could ranked choice voting make Vallejo's City Council more representative? Sep 15, 2024 Ranked choice, also known as instant runoff voting, allows voters to rank candidates in order from their favorite to least preferred candidate. "Proponents of the system argue that it leads to a number of benefits for candidates and voters, including a reduction in negative campaigning. The idea is that candidates may be leery of attacking a voter’s first choice candidate because under ranked choice they still need to appeal to voters to mark them as a second or third preference. But the leading feature according to its proponents is that it tends to prevent what is known as “vote splitting,” or “the spoiler effect.” This is when two candidates that may be running on similar issues appeal to the same group of voters, or when a third party candidate draws votes away from one of two leading candidates, allowing the opposing candidate to prevail. According to Marcela Miranda-Caballero, executive director of the advocacy group California Ranked Choice Voting, in the ranked choice system, voters can feel more secure about voting for their favorite candidate without worrying about strategizing to make their vote count in order to prevent a candidate that they really don’t want from taking office." Read the full article at https://www.vallejosun.com/could-ranked-choice-voting-make-vallejos-city-council-more-representative/ All News & Updates

How well did ranked-choice voting work in the 2022 Oakland mayor’s race? Dec 1, 2022 Loren Taylor shaded the system after his loss. Oaklandside asked Sean Dugar, Cal RCV consultant and Oakland-based national elections expert, to weigh in. "An example is that prior to ranked-choice voting, Oakland had never elected a woman as mayor. Since we’ve had ranked-choice voting [since 2010] we’ve elected nothing but women as mayors. We see more Black officials elected through ranked choice voting than we have at any other point in our history, which is remarkable considering our Black population is dwindling." Read the full article at https://oaklandside.org/2022/12/01/how-well-did-ranked-choice-voting-work-in-the-2022-oakland-mayors-race/ All News & Updates