Reform on the Roll

Once again, there is–fortunately–a lot happening in the world of political reform.

On August 18, California Common Cause announced that its Board unanimously decided to support a Constitutional Convention for California. Just two days before, the L.A. Times offered their endorsement for a Citizen-led convention and offered implicit support for the Citizen Delegate model championed by the Political Reform Program.

In the Capitol, the Senate Appropriations Committee gave thumbs-up to AB 1121, a bill that would allow a limited number of general law jurisdictions to use Instant Runoff or Ranked Choice Voting. The same committee also placed AB 30 in the "suspense file"–a kind of legislative purgatory. AB 30 is the bill that would allow 16 year olds to "pre-register" to vote. Once these young adults turned 18, their registration would go "live." It’s a simple way to engage tomorrow’s leaders in the democratic process and it can be done very inexpensively. Unfortunately, at present, the Appropriations Committee is working with inaccurate information which inflates the cost of the program. If the Committee considers the real numbers, this bill has a good chance of making its way out of Committee and through the full Senate.

In the South Bay, Instant Runoff Voting is getting a lot of attention in San Jose and there is a growing possibility that an IRV charter amendment will make the ballot in 2010.

San Jose currently uses two round runoffs to elect its mayor and city council. Switching to IRV would require voter approval of a charter amendment which could be placed on the ballot by the council. In April, the county’s Democratic Party, one of the major players in San Jose politics, endorsed a resolution calling on the city council to place a charter amendment before voters.

Mayor Chuck Reed and a number of city council members are IRV supporters. Over a year ago, Reed and the council kicked consideration of IRV over to the city’s Election Commission, whose agenda has been loaded with an unrelated mess of issues, anonymous complaints and city hall intrigue. After fits and starts and intermittent consideration of IRV, the Commission wants to take a closer look at it and is scheduling a separate meeting or study session to do so.