Electoral reform in California refers to efforts to change election and voting laws in the West Coast state of California.
Contents |
In 2002, San Francisco adopted instant-runoff voting in part because of low turnout in its runoff elections[1]. The system is called "Ranked Choice Voting" there. In 2006, Oakland, California passed Measure O, adopting instant runoff voting[2]. Circa 2006, the city council of Davis voted 3-2 to place a measure on the ballot to recommend use of single transferable vote for city elections[3]; the measure was approved by the electorate. The state legislature has approved AB 1294 which if signed by the Governor would codify ranked choice elections in state law and allow general law cities (those without charters) to use these election methods[4]. Californians for Electoral Reform is a non-profit organization which promotes the use of ranked choice voting at all levels of government (city, county, state legislature, school boards, etc.).
Currently, California's 55 electoral votes are designated to the candidate winning the statewide popular vote.
In 2006, both houses of the California Legislature passed AB 2948, a bill to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and designate California's electoral votes to the ticket winning the popular vote nationwide. Hours before it was scheduled to become law, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Assemblyman Tom Umberg indicated he planned to support a ballot initiative, paraphrasing the Governor by saying, "We'll be back." There are also 2 slightly different versions of the Popular Vote Interstate Compact attempting to qualify for the ballot in 2008 [5].
Republicans proposed a rival reform to allocate electoral votes by Congressional district, similarly to Maine and Nebraska[6]. The California Democratic Party calculated that this would likely result in 22 of California's electoral votes going to the Republican candidate in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election[7].
In November 2005, the electorate rejected Proposition 77 which called for a panel of three retired judges to draw boundaries for California’s Senate, Assembly, Congressional and Board of Equalization districts. It had been viewed with suspicion due to its Republican backers. FairVote suggested that independent redistricting would help avoid gerrymandering, but the major reform needed was the replacement of single member districts with multi-member districts. This would make it possible to implement single transferable vote or other proportional representation systems[8].
In November 2008, voters in California passed Proposition 11 to reform how electoral districts are drawn in the state. The proposition called for a commission of fourteen non-politician voters to draw boundaries for the Senate, Assembly, and Board of Equalization districts. The commission is to be made up of five Democrats, five Republicans, and four commissioners from neither major party.[9]
In November 2010, Proposition 20 was passed, which put the commission in charge of drawing United States House of Representatives districts in California.
In the June 2010 elections, voters approved Proposition 14, establishing the nonpartisan blanket primary as the election method for state and federal offices except for local, non-partisan, and presidential elections.
In California, voting rights are restored to felons automatically after release from prison and discharge from parole. Probationers may vote[10]. Prior to 1978, only persons who had a certified medical excuse, or who could demonstrate that they would be out of town on Election Day, were allowed to vote absentee. Today, any voter may vote absentee. In 2004, State Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara) proposed a youth suffrage constitutional amendment called Training Wheels for Citizenship that would give 14-year-olds a quarter vote, 16-year-olds a half vote, and 17-year-olds a full vote[11][12].
|
|||||||||||