Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), an idea advanced by the New America Foundation to give voters more influence and more choices in elections, continued to gain favor in California and elsewhere as four cities strongly approved November 7 ballot measures supporting the idea.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Steven Hill, 415-665-5044 November 10, 2006 Hill@newamerica.net Lynne Serpe, 213-480-0994 Serpe@newamerica.net Election Proves New Voting Method to Improve Democracy Is Catching On Political reform is adopted by voters in four cities, two in California SACRAMENTO, CA -- Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), an idea advanced by the New America Foundation to give voters more influence and more choices in elections, continued to gain favor in California and elsewhere as four cities strongly approved November 7 ballot measures supporting the idea. In California, where San Francisco became the state's first Instant Runoff Voting city in 2004, voters in the cities of Oakland and Davis approved the idea, which would allow voters to rank their first, second, and third choices for office. Oakland overwhelmingly supported the measure by 68% of the returns, meaning voters will use Instant Runoff Voting for all local offices in November 2008. The Davis measure was an advisory recommendation. Elsewhere, voters in Minneapolis passed their ballot measure with 65% support. And in Pierce County, Washington, voters supported the move to IRV for their partisan county elections with 54% of the vote. New America staff Lynne Serpe and Steven Hill played a key role as advisors to several of these campaigns. New America was joined by other organizations, including FairVote (www.fairvote.org), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that is the national clearinghouse on electoral systems like instant runoff voting. The elections clearly affirm a growing trend toward Instant Runoff Voting as a response to public frustration with unresponsive and unaccountable government leaders. Instant Runoff Voting discourages negative campaigning and opens the process to candidates and ideas that may not be viable in a traditional winner-take-all election. "Clearly there is strong interest among voters in political reforms that open up the political system and make voters feel like their vote counts," said Lynne Serpe, Deputy Director of New America's Political Reform Program. "What was interesting about the four victories for IRV was that they happened in four very different locations. Oakland is a very diverse and working-class city; Minneapolis is a liberal Midwestern city; Pierce County is mostly a rural county with large numbers of independent voters; and Davis is a smaller, university town. Yet in every place Instant Runoff Voting provided a unique solution to problems with representative government and democracy." Instant Runoff Voting already is used in San Francisco, which on November 7 had its third election using Instant Runoff Voting for local offices. Burlington, Vermont elected its mayor using Instant Runoff Voting in March 2006. For more information on the election and Instant Runoff Voting go to http://www.newamerica.net/programs/political_reform. About New America Foundation New America Foundation is a nonprofit, post-partisan, public policy institute whose purpose is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of our nation's public discourse. Relying on a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy solutions that transcend the conventional political spectrum. Headquartered in our nation's capital, New America also has offices in California and New York. For more information about New America or the Political Reform Program, go to www.newamerica.net/california