<x-flowed>Somehow, every paper in the nation got the headline wrong today. They led the Super Tuesday results with something about John Kerry's victories. And they didn't lead with "Berkeley votes to authorize instant runoff voting"

Where are their priorities?

So, to rectify that lapse in journalistic judgment, here are some details on yesterday's Berkeley vote to amend the city charter to authoritze the council to implement instant runoff voting, which passed with 72% of the vote.

Currently, the City of Berkeley holds runoff elections if no candidate earns 45% of the vote in a single-seat race. These are not cheap. Measure I amends the city charter to permit the city council to implement instant runoff voting.

However, Alameda County Registrar Brad Clark is an opponent of instant runoff voting, so his office has not been friendly to letting a city use instant runoff voting. We'll see what happens with this dynamic as the high vote total creates a mandate to use instant runoff voting (in our humble opinion, as advocates for instant runoff voting).

Campaign website: http://www.irv4berkeley.org
San Francisco Chronicle article "Berkeley smiling on instant runoffs"
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/03/03/BAG1A5D1BR1.DTL
Oakland Tribune article: "Berkeley measures to change charter winning"
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~1993423,00.html

Dan
Dan Johnson-Weinberger
General Counsel
Center for Voting and Democracy
djw@fairvote.org
www.fairvote.org
312.587.7060

Personal site:
www.djw.info

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