LA City Council to Hear IRV
Los Angeles, CA, June 26, 2008. Instant
Runoff Voting (IRV) has taken a quantum leap.
Due to the unanimous outpouring of support at yesterday’s City Hall
hearing, the Los Angeles City Council could decide to put
IRV on the November 2008 ballot on Friday. The hearing will be held at LA City Hall, 11:30 am.
By allowing voters to rank their choices (1-2-3), IRV will eliminate the need
for costly runoff elections. The City Clerk estimates that IRV would save LA
taxpayers $8 to $9 million per election. Majority winners will be decided
in a single election. In this manner, IRV will help solve two chronic problems
that plague Los Angeles
voters and taxpayers: voter fatigue and wasteful, expensive runoff elections.
Last year, barely 6 percent of registered voters cast a ballot for the May
runoff election (Los Angeles Community College District) -- a forty percent
dropoff from the first election in March. That election alone cost taxpayers
$5.5 million, over $40 per voter. Detailed information about IRV is
available at IRVinLA.org.
IRV has been endorsed by State Controller John Chiang, the Los Angeles League
of Women Voters, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO), the Los
Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Richard Alatorre, California Secretary of
State Debra Bowen, Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, and State Board of Equalization
Chair Judy Chu. A full list of endorsers is available at www.IRVinLA.org.
Recently, IRV has been covered by the LA Times, California Progress Report, Channel 35 and NPR:
http://irvinla.org/latest_news/irv-profiled-top-political-blogs
http://irvinla.org/latest_news/irv-covered-l-cityview-channel-35
http://irvinla.org/latest_news/la-times-blog-supports-irv
http://irvinla.org/latest_news/socal-public-radio-spotlights-irv
Please contact Gautam Dutta of New America Foundation at 213.480.0994 for more information.
