By Daily Press staff
The Wilshire/Montana Neighborhood Coalition (Wilmont) recently voted to adopt instant runoff voting to elect its officers. Wilmont is the first neighborhood organization in Santa Monica to adopt IRV, and hopes to ensure majority rule by outlawing separate runoff elections.
With IRV, members of the board will be allowed to rank their choices when they vote for officers. If no candidate is a majority, a runoff will instantly be held among top candidates. If a voter’s favorite candidate is not one of the candidates in the runoff, their vote will go to their next choice.
The city has been considering IRV for some time. In 1992, a city charter review commission recommended it for City Council elections. In 1999, members of the City Council gave city staff direction to explore IRV as an option for its elections, and that exploration process is still ongoing. Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown and Councilman Mike Feinstein are both on record as supporting IRV.
The California League of Women Voters has stated that they “(s)upport election systems for executive offices, both at the state and local levels, that require the winner to receive a majority of the votes, as long as the majority is achieved using a voting method such as instant runoff voting, rather than a second, separate runoff election.”
In November, San Francisco will conduct IRV elections for the first time. The Grassroots Venice Neighborhood Council also recently adopted IRV for its elections.
Santa Monica Ranked Voting is a local organization that is promoting IRV and “Choice Voting,” both voting systems where people are empowered to rank their choices at the ballot. More information may be found at www.smrankedvoting.org.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 17, 2004. Read the original PDF.