AB 1121, by Assembly Member Mike Davis (D-48), gives a limited number of local governments (i.e. cities and counties) the option to use instant runoff voting (IRV) and choice voting to elect their representatives. Charter jurisdictions already have the opportunity to use these improved electoral systems, but three-fourths of all California cities and counties are "general law" jurisdictions and are not able to use these systems. AB 1121 would begin to address this by allowing up to a maximum of 10 general law cities or counties to use ranked voting. This bill would not affect charter jurisdictons.

Please act now to help pass AB 1121. Click on the link below for details.

Last revised May 15, 2009

The authors will speak at the annual membership meeting of Californians for Electoral Reform on May 30. See here for details.

My Mark Paul and Micah Weinberg

November 19, 2008--California is a state of many distinct regions. To give citizens a voice on regional issues and to reinvigorate California's Legislature, the state's central institution of self-government, we propose Personalized Full Representation for the 21st Century (PFR21), a system of representation by means of regionally based legislative elections that will allow the state'scitizens to set the agenda for their regions and for the state as a whole. By reshaping the stage on which legislative politics is played out, California can make state government more attentive to regional issues and give its citizens a means of holding elected officials accountable for addressing regional problems. PFR21would break the partisan stranglehold on California's legislative outcomes and put the state at the forefront of political and policy innovation.

On October 22, three members of the Marin County Election Advisory Committee discussed election integrity and voter confidence on the Novato community access program Sounding Board. The League of Women Voters of Marin County has a video transcript at

Be sure to check out this new explanation of choice voting from FairVote.

Last revised October 15, 2008

We now have a video transcript of the September 15 forum at the College of Marin, "Bring Democracy Home".

September 7, 2007 -- The September 5 Novato Advance includes this article about a Novato resident who wants the city to switch from a council elected at large to one elected from districts.

District proponent Gary Scheppke argues that the current system results in too many council members from one part of town and too few from another part of town. He may well be right, but there's a much better solution to this problem.