With at least three City Council members -- Robert Garcia, Suja Lowenthal and James Johnson -- recently expressing their support for Instant Runoff Voting, and another, Councilman Gary DeLong, at one time showing some interest, it could one day become the way that Long Beach residents vote. The council is expected to vote tonight to forward its Charter Amendment Committee recommendation to discuss changes to the voting system, including perhaps Instant Runoff Voting, to another council committee.
Instant Runoff Voting, also known as Ranked Choice Voting, allows voters to select up to three candidates in their order of preference. When the election results come in, the candidates with the fewest number of votes are eliminated, and then the second choices on those ballots are applied to other candidates. The process continues until someone wins, essentially with a majority vote. Supporters say this can avoid the need for a runoff election, ensures the winner actually has a majority, and avoids "spoiler" candidates who may take away votes from a similar candidate and end up making the person that most voters oppose win the election. Opponents say it doesn't always work that way. Watch the videos below and decide for yourself.
Here's the pro-IRV video from FairVote.org:
And an anti-IRV video:
Paul Eakins reports on Long Beach City Hall, and local and regional
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