[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Mirkarimi wins in SF IRV

Sun Nov 7 11:58:55 PST 2004

>
>
>SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
>
>Preliminary winners in 4 disputed districts
>
>Sandoval, Elsbernd, McGoldrick, Mirkarimi get nod
>
>by Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer
>
>Saturday, November 6, 2004
>
>San Francisco's new ranked-choice election finally produced a complete
>slate of winners for the seven district supervisor races, according to
>preliminary results released Friday.
>
>But whether the new-fangled system of electing local officeholders turns
>out to be a winner or loser remains to be seen.
>
>Incumbents Jake McGoldrick, Sean Elsbernd and Gerardo Sandoval won the
>races in Districts 1, 7 and 11, respectively, while Ross Mirkarimi,
>endorsed by outgoing Board of Supervisors President Matt Gonzalez as his
>successor, won in District 5, according to the results released Friday.
>
>They join victors Michela Alioto-Pier in District 2, Aaron Peskin in
>District 3 and Tom Ammiano in District 9, who won outright on election
>day with more than 50 percent of the vote.
>
>The new voting system, also known as instant runoff voting, was adopted
>by voters in 2002 and put into use for the first time in Tuesday's
>election, but it got bogged down Wednesday when the computer program
>written to tabulate votes choked on the unanticipated large number of
>ballots.
>
>That worried supporters of the new system -- which is generally backed
>by the city's left-leaning progressives.
>
>On Friday, they were breathing sighs of relief.
>
>"I think it's good for the city; it's good for California," said
>Supervisor-elect Mirkarimi. He added that he didn't think the
>last-minute software snafu detracted from the system's credibility. "If
>this is as bad as RCV gets, we should be adopting it throughout
>California," he said.
>
>Wednesday's problems, meanwhile, led the new system's critics -- who
>include more moderate Democrats -- to sense an aborted premiere that
>could help build a case for repeal and a return to the system of
>settling local elections with runoffs.
>
>Ranked-choice voting is designed to achieve several goals -- among them,
>avoiding costly runoff elections and eliminating the edge that better-
>financed candidates have in traditional runoff elections.
>
>Under the system, voters rank up to three choices for the office being
>decided. If no one candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the
>lowest vote-getter is eliminated from the race, and the next-ranked vote
>on ballots won by that candidate are redistributed. The process
>continues until someone receives a simple majority of votes.
>
>David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education
>Committee, said his group would be analyzing exit polls to see whether
>non- English speakers were disenfranchised by the process.
>
>>From what he had seen, a number of Chinese voters had chosen only one
>candidate for supervisor, when they could have ranked two more to
>participate in the process fully.
>
>"If (ranked-choice voting) consistently shows this under-voting, there
>may be a voting rights case," he said, noting that all four contested
>districts are home to a large number of black, Chinese and Latino
>communities.
>
>Possible action could include a lawsuit or a movement to repeal ranked-
>choice voting at the ballot box.
>
>"Within the next month or so, we'll have a very clear picture of where
>we want to go," Lee said.
>
>On election night, the new system seemed to be running smoothly, with
>few problems reported at the polls, and election data being posted
>quickly after voting closed.
>
>But early Wednesday afternoon, when elections officials went to run the
>software program designed to calculate ranked-choice race winners, they
>realized the data it was spitting out were incorrect.
>
>Troubleshooters from Election Systems and Software, which designed the
>program for the city, flew from the firm's Nebraska headquarters
>Thursday and realized they needed to remove a limitation in the computer
>coding that was blocking some data from being tabulated.
>
>They developed a fix for the system, which was approved overnight by the
>secretary of state, California's highest election official.
>
>Because it was considered an insignificant change to the ballot reading
>system that already had been certified by the state, the fix did not
>require additional certification, said Caren Daniels, a secretary of
>state spokeswoman. Only certified equipment can be used to read ballots.
>
>San Francisco Elections Director John Arntz, who announced the results
>after six hours of running the computer program Friday, cautioned that
>his department had yet to count between 50,000 and 60,000 absentee and
>provisional ballots. Provisional ballots are those cast by votes whose
>eligibility needs to be verified. The chore of verifying and counting
>those outstanding votes will take another few weeks, he said.
>
>However, considering the preliminary margins of victory in the races --
>and the fact that the remaining ballots include many from districts that
>didn't have a supervisor's race -- the results released Friday aren't
>expected to change.
>
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Winning numbers in the last round of ranked-choice voting tabulation
>District 1 (7 candidates)
>
>Jake McGoldrick 11,204; Lillian Sing 9,167
>
>Total ballots: 23,992
>
>District 5 (22 candidates; no incumbent)
>
>Ross Mirkarimi 11,166; Robert Haaland 6,285; Nick Waugh 4,737
>
>Total ballots: 32,144
>
>District 7 (13 candidates)
>
>Sean Elsbernd 10,618; Christine Linnenbach 8,432
>
>Total ballots: 27,031
>
>District 11 (8 candidates)
>
>Gerardo Sandoval 8,808; Myrna Lim 6,159
>
>Total ballots: 20,089
>
>E-mail Suzanne Herel at sherel at sfchronicle.com.
>
>Page B - 1
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>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand