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Posted on November 16, 2010 by gdewar | Leave a comment

California Life

It never ceases to amaze me how blatant political spin can be passed off as
information, if you just make sure to quote spinners on all sides. That doesnt
make what theyre saying any more true it just makes it seem that way.
Today, the Chronicle had yet another Ranked Choice Voting/Instant Runoff

California Politics
Campaign Tactics & Analysis
Debunking Politicos Pundits + Spin

Voting* post-mortem, this time once again repeating the mantra of RCV Will

Democratic Party Chatter

Make Candidates Nice and Coalition Blah Blah BLAH all over again. In

Gov. Doofinator's Follies

particular we hear how this is somehow making campaigns play nicer, and

Instant Runoff Voting FAIL

encourage coalition building amongst candidates, whatever THAT means.

Links of Interest

Now, weve had this magical system for 6 years in San Francisco. Looking back
at all the contested supervisorial races, could anyone argue that they got less hit
mail from candidates and independent expenditures in the last six years? No.
How about candidates doing the buddy buddy system to get elected? Well the

Los Angeles Politics

Political Direct Mail Archive 2006
Political Direct Mail Archive 2007

only time we had that was in 2004 in District 5, and every single candidate that

Political Direct Mail Archive 2008

tried the buddy system got their asses kicked pretty seriously by the top two

Politics of Political Reform

vote getters. The gimmicky joint mailers and so on didnt work.

Pop Culture & Society

Did we get more liberals elected in San Francisco? Did we have any sure losers

San Francisco Politics

somehow magically make their way to the top? Not really most citywide

Uncategorized

elections since RCV have been uncontested, or in the case of Newsoms re-

Website News

election, it was Newsom up against a pack of no-names that werent serious

about winning.

META

Turnout hasnt changed because of RCV either its driven primarily by what
kind of elections are on the ballot. People turned out in higher numbers in 2008

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to vote in the presidential election not to vote for City Supervisor. Get Real.

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The one thing that has changed is that at least at a district level, candidates

Comments RSS

should have a strategy to ID their supporters and get them to the polls, but they

WordPress.org

also need to look at the ones not IDd as supporters and somehow convince them
to mark them in the #2 spot when they vote. This is not an easy thing to explain
to people, and theres no way to really track it either, but its a nice safety net.
Other than that, campaigns will have to fight a lot harder, a lot faster, because
there is no more runoff to shake out the detritus its all or nothing on Election
Day.
Whereas in the past, a runoff meant that the final two would have to formally ask
for support from losing candidates, be held responsible for whatever stunts they
pulled in the general election, and would have a one-on-one debate with their
opponent (vs. the cast of 1000s we got in some districts), giving the public a
chance to get a better look. True, turnout in a December election wasnt great,
but they could have just as easily had the election just a few weeks later.
By the way, that old saw about saving money is pure bullshit, because the
people who push this kind of thing also push for huge increases in government
spending in other areas. Also, I dont like the idea of democracy on the cheap
we dont skimp when were doing elections in Iraq why should we here?
Ill be writing more as I interview more people and try and come up with
something thats a bit more than just refuting the ping pong reporting that is
considered analysis in San Francisco.

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