What problems will Proportional RCV solve for Los Angeles democracy?
- Modern day representation for a “multi-everything” city. Proportional RCV does a better job of ensuring broad representation and allowing diverse candidates from traditionally underrepresented communities to win election without relying on a redistricting commission to draw the right district lines. Voters win representation no matter where they live, even if they are geographically spread out.
- No more redistricting battles. The recent redistricting scandal in Los Angeles shows that the process is a brutal tug-of-war that divides communities along racial, political and geographic lines. Even in San Francisco, which has a fully independent redistricting commission, the same thing happened. The problem is district elections, no matter who draws the lines the process is “winner take all” where one side wins and everyone else loses. That would never happen again with P-RCV.
- More voter choice and flexibility. P-RCV allows naturally shifting and flexible associations of people and organizations to respond to the fast-changing politics of a large city. There is no “districts grid” that is forced upon the ever-shifting politics and frozen into place for a decade.
- Voters true preferences are better expressed. With P-RCV, people are not forced into stereotypical molds of being a “progressive,” a “moderate,” a “conservative” or from one neighborhood or another. They can assess candidates for their unique blend of characteristics, whether race, gender, sexual orientation, political ideas or neighborhood.
- Best of both worlds. P-RCV allows a natural give-and-take between electing representatives who are based in neighborhoods and represent neighborhood interests, and other representatives that pay more attention to citywide issues. Both citywide and neighborhood issues are important and relevant, but districts only pay attention to neighborhood issues. Only P-RCV allows a hybrid of both of these important perspectives.
- Decrease influence of political machines. With P-RCV, candidates can win with lower percentages of the vote. Candidates can win without support from a political machine, or slate cards or big campaign donors. Independent candidates can be successful.
- Supports campaign finance reform. Since candidates can win with lower percentages of the vote, candidates don’t need to run citywide or raise so much campaign funds.
- People should be able to win representation no matter where they live. With P-RCV, your political “home” is based on what you believe, not where you live. Every voter will be able to help elect their favorite candidates. Because of the ranked ballots, no votes are wasted on losing candidates. You no longer need to vote for a “lesser of two evils” candidate because your favorite candidate has no chance of winning.
Proportional ranked choice voting would result in better representation for all Angelenos, and would allow the vibrant diversity of this cosmopolitan, multi-everything city to express itself in elections in a way that has never been possible for. This is “state of the art” democracy.