California county trying to shake up voting laws
Eden Villalovas
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Legislators in California’s Santa Clara County have proposed a bill to implement ranked-choice voting for county elections.
Assembly Bill 1227 was introduced by Democratic Silicon Valley Assemblymen Alex Lee and Evan Low in February and has passed the assembly and is currently on its way to the state senate.
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If passed, the bill could allow the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to “adopt, or a voter of the county to propose by initiative, a proposal to elect an officer of that county by RCV.” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) would sign off on the bill if passed.
“In an ideal world where people have enough information and the playing field is pretty even, ranked-choice voting provides a really great atmosphere for people to pick and choose and rank their favorites and also leads to less zero summing when it comes to whether it has to be the lesser of two evils,” Lee told the Mercury News.
Ranked-choice voting is a system that allows voters to rank candidates based on preference, as opposed to selecting one candidate. The voters are counted in rounds and the candidate with the least votes is eliminated. The process is repeated until one candidate gains a majority.
The system is intended to give voters more control over their winning candidate, avoiding elections where a candidate wins based on a small percentage of the vote.
Ranked-choice voting in Santa Clara has been contested for many years after voters passed a measure in 1998 stating the county charter permits supervisors to adopt a ranked-choice system if they choose. Democratic Supervisor Otto Lee has supported the switch, telling reporters it gives lesser-known or low-funded candidates a fair place in the electoral process.
“Ranked choice voting encourages more clarity and cooperation among candidates that elevates the quality of the debate and lessens the vitriol and personal attacks that is far too commonplace during campaigns,” Lee said.
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The relatively new voting system is gaining popularity in some local and state elections in California like Albany, Berkeley, Oakland, Palm Desert, San Leandro, and San Francisco. New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, and other countries use rank-choice voting in national elections.
As rank-choice voting gains popularity in cities near the Bay Area and out West, other cities may follow suit.