• Amend the Los Angeles County Charter, in order to elect the County Board of Supervisors and the new County Executive position by ranked choice voting.

• Add ranked-choice voting capability to Los Angeles County’s current ‘Voting Solutions for All People’ voting program, so that local governments who want to use ranked-choice voting for their local elections can do so, in elections that are conducted by the County (which is the case for all but five cities in Los Angeles County)
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In November 2024 elections, Los Angeles County voters approved Measure G, which increased the number of Board of Supervisors members from five to nine, and established a new elected County Executive. But Measure G did not address how these positions are elected, leaving in place LA County’s outdated two round, conditional run-off system.

To rectify this — and to better inform the next step in the charter reform process, the Board of Supervisors should give direction to the County Registrar of Voters to return with ranked-choice voting (RCV) implementation options — for the Supervisors themselves to consider, and to inform the new County Governance Reform Task Force, also newly established by Measure G.

This newly established body — and the Board of Supervisors itself, should compare and contrast RCV vs. the County’s current system and consider how RCV

(1) empowers voters by giving them the ability to express their preferences over more candidates,
(2) eliminates vote-splitting and the ‘spoiler’ dynamic,
(3) discourages negative campaigning and personality-based attacks on opponents,
(4) gives greater policy direction to the ultimate winner,

and by moving to a single RCV general election in November

(5) places choosing the winner before a higher turnout and more diverse general election electorate (instead of lower turnout and less diverse primaries),
(6) saves taxpayers money by paying for only one election,
(7) lowers the cost of running for office by having only one election,
(8) spreads public financing dollars further by applying them to only a single election

There are also local governments in LA County that are interested in using ranked-choice voting for their local elections; but they are being held back because the County does not offer ranked-choice voting as an option in the elections it conducts for local governments.  This is especially problematic in addressing voting rights cases in local elections, as the California Supreme Court has ruled that ranked-choice voting is an appropriate remedy for voting rights violations. It is also problematic for the City of Los Angeles, which is embarking upon its own Charter Reform Commission process without knowing if, how and when RCV could be an option for use in its own City elections.

Regarding the cost to install RCV capability into VASP, while the County Registrar has maintained that it would take several years and millions of dollars, fortunately there is a viable inexpensive RCV option that the Supervisors should direct the Registrar to report on – RCTab, from the RCV Resource Center. RCTab is open source, free and certified in California for single-winner RCV elections, which would be appropriate to elect the Supervisors and the new County Executive, all whom are chosen in single-seat, single-winner elections.
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My public testimony on this topic at meetings of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors:

• July 30, 2024, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting

Hi.  Mike Feinstein, former Santa Monica Mayor, speaking for the Green Party. There is much hope for broader and deeper representation with an increase in Board members.  But your outdated contingent two-round runoff system can work against this, compared to single ranked-choice voting general elections, which would allow all views and candidates to be heard by the most voters; and voters would have the greatest ability to express their preferences over the entire field.

Your current system puts important choices before a lower turnout and less diverse primary election electorate.Vote splitting among multiple strong primary candidates can leave to random results of who makes it to a run-off with a small percentage of the vote.  This creates pressure for some not to run, which shortchanges public debate.

It also costs more money to run in two elections instead of one, which can also limit who can run and therefore public debate.

For these reasons, please give direction to the County Registrar of Voters to return with ranked-choice voting implementation options to inform the next step in the charter reform process.  Thank you.

• July 9, 2024, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting

Hi, Mike Feinstein, former Santa Monica Mayor speaking on behalf of the County Green Party. We think that if you’re going to take electoral reform seriously, you need to give the County Registrar’s office direction to look at how to implement ranked-choice voting for your elections.

You use a terrible contingent runoff system right now that has people elected in lower turnout and less diverse primaries.  You are also holding up reform in other cities like Burbank who want to address voting rights issues by using some form of ranked-choice voting.

[The City of] Los Angeles should be looking at proportional ranked-choice voting with this charter reform commission. But it needs you to be able to perform for it.  [County Registrar] Dean Logan has not been, respectively, been enthusiastic about implementing it. To complete your package of reforms, you need to give him direction to start coming up with a plan to use it.  Thank you.

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My Written commentary on this topic at meetings to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors:

July 23, 2004:

Recommendation that all Board of Supervisor seats be elected by ranked-choice voting (RCV) and that Board give direction now to County Registrar of Voters to return with RCV implementation options, so that new Charter Review Commission can be so informed, and then focus on compare and contrast of RCV vs County’s current out-dated two-round contingent runoff system.

February 28, 2023:

The Green Party of Los Angeles County says these studies must be accompanied by an exploration about how ranked-choice voting (RCV), in concert with a larger BOS, would

(1) empower voters by giving them the ability to express their preferences over more candidates,
(2) eliminate votes-splitting and the spoiler effect,
(3) give greater policy direction to the ultimate winner, and by having only a single RCV general election in November,
(4) eliminate the present contingent spring/Nov elections that lead to lower turnout and less diverse spring elections determining the winner in two candidate races and who advances to Nov in 3 or more candidate races,
(5) save the taxpayer money by paying for only one election and
(6) lower the cost of running for office by having only one election

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