[EL] LA's new voting system (and ranked choice voting)

[David A. Holtzman]

I get some information about Los Angeles County’s “Voting Systems 
Assessment Project” (VSAP) from the League of Women Voters of Los 
Angeles County (LWV-LAC).


The VSAP hasn’t exactly been seeking “a collaborative approach to voting 
system design” as its “about” webpage 
<https://www.lavote.net/vsap/about> suggests.Rather, it has sought to 
design a voting system of its own, using a handpicked advisory committee 
and sole-source contracts.The project’s voter-centered approach is 
praiseworthy and it has generated useful insights and suggestions, to be 
sure, but keep in mind that there is an underlying hope or expectation 
that the VSAP will come up with a specific system that the county 
government can get certified and sell to other election jurisdictions.


The LWV-LAC has been treating its invited participation in the VSAP as a 
“voter service” matter (providing information to the public about the 
project) rather than as “advocacy” (asserting League positions or 
otherwise providing input to the project). Despite having formally 
concurred with local League chapters’ advocacy of Instant Runoff Voting 
(IRV) for all single-seat elections, LWV-LAC has not insisted that IRV 
capability (ranked voting) be a feature of the system. And so, *the 
prototype shown at the link does not appear to include ranked voting for 
instant runoff elections as a feature*.


Even if the machines could accept a software update to make for 
user-friendly ranking of candidates, once the machines are certified 
without that software, a separate, expensive, time-consuming 
certification process would be required before the software update could 
be used. That would delay the enhancements to voter freedom and election 
fairness that ranked voting and instant runoff elections can provide.

*It looks like IRV will miss the VSAP certification boat*, and I think 
that's largely due to the ineffectiveness of LWV-LAC. (LWV-LAC’s 
inaction came despite my imprecations.I am a past president of the LWV’s 
L.A. /city/ chapter, one of the chapters which advocates IRV, but which 
was not invited to participate in the VSAP.)


- dah



On 7/7/2016 2:54 AM, Thomas J. Cares wrote:
> Does anyone know if this new system would better enable Ranked Choice 
> Voting/Instant Runoff Voting?
>
> I would presume that it should, but for all I know maybe it would make 
> it even harder to potentially implement RCV in LA
>
> On Thursday, July 7, 2016, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu 
> <mailto:rhasen at law.uci.edu>> wrote:
>
>
>     “Los Angeles County Unveils New Voting System Prototype”
>     <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84085>
>
> Posted onJuly 5, 2016 11:44 am 
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?p=84085>by*Rick Hasen* 
> <http://electionlawblog.org/?author=3>
>
> Doug Chapin 
> <http://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2016/07/05/los-angeles-county-unveils-new-voting-system-prototype/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HHHElections+%28The+Election+Academy%29>:
>
> /One of the most eagerly-anticipated projects in elections took 
> another step forward last week as Los Angeles County, CA unveiled the 
> prototype of the new voting system developed through its Voting System 
> Assessment Project (VSAP). The LA Times has more 
> <http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-county-voting-system-20160630-snap-story.html>./
>
> Disclosure: I am a new member of the VSAP but I missed the unveiling 
> of the prototype last week when I was travelling.
>
> hare 
> <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D84085&title=%26%238220%3BLos%20Angeles%20County%20Unveils%20New%20Voting%20System%20Prototype%26%238221%3B&description=>
>
> Posted invoting technology <http://electionlawblog.org/?cat=40>
>
>
>
> -- 
>
>
>
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-- 
David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
david at holtzmanlaw.com

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