Reforms

PROPORTIONAL RANKED CHOICE VOTING

Proportional ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is the gold standard for how to conduct legislative elections in the United States. Under proportional RCV, candidates are elected from multi-seat “super districts,” and different groups of like-minded voters are able to elect winners in proportion to their share of the votes cast. Nearly all voters will be able to help elect a candidate they support, which makes the proportional ranked choice voting an excellent voting rights remedy. It has the ability to facilitate the election of diverse legislatures without bitter conflicts over redistricting battles. Proportional RCV is a candidate-based form of what is known as “proportional representation” and it is also sometimes called the single transferable vote. Find out more info here  and here including how proportional RCV works, how voters fill out their ballots, how the ballots are counted, where it is used, and more. And here’s one short video and a second short video illustrating how the ballots are counted.

RANKED CHOICE VOTING

For our “choose-one” elections, ranked choice voting (RCV) — also known as instant runoff voting (IRV) — improves fairness in elections by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. RCV is straightforward: Voters have the option to rank candidates in order of preference: first, second, third and so forth. Votes that do not help voters’ top choices win count for their next choice. It works in all types of elections and supports more representative outcomes. Watch this short video or this short video which shows how voters vote, how the ballots are counted and why it’s the fairest method to choose winners when a majority of the vote is needed to win.

PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY

A People’s Assembly is a new form of participatory democracy which allows everyday people to participate directly in making important policy decisions at a city, national or even at the international level. A peoples assembly is a group of residents that is randomly selected — kind of like a jury pool — according to demographic criteria such as gender, race and age. It constitutes a city or a country in miniature. The role of a people’s assembly is to provide, with the help of professional staff, an in-depth analysis of a given issue, a deliberation over different solutions, hearing of the pros and cons, and then to make informed and pragmatic decisions relatively free of partisan self-interest. People’s Assemblies are meant to augment representative democracy by providing another link between the people and their elected government. At this link, you can find out more information about people’s assemblies, how they work, and where they have been used. 

NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCILS

A neighborhood council is a non-governmental body whose purpose is to promote citizen participation in local government.  Neighborhood councils are meant to augment representative democracy by providing another link between the people and their elected government. The organization serves as a point of contact between the main city government and the city’s residents, through functions such as publishing community newsletters to communicate civic and political issues to the community, making recommendations to the citywide government on the community’s needs and its views on governmental policies and issues, and direct participation in the management of neighborhood projects and facilities.  Neighborhood councils advocate for their neighborhoods at City Hall on important issues like development, housing, homelessness, climate change, public transportation, emergency preparedness and more. They are advisory, but some have proposed that neighborhood councils should be empowered to propose legislation to the city council, which then must decide to pass or reject the legislation. Los Angeles has one of the best known and longest serving system of neighborhood councils, and you can find out more about them at this link.