Ecological Wisdom * Social Justice * Grassroots Democracy * Non-Violence
>> Green Party of Michigan <<
http://www.migreens.org
>>> ---------------- <<<
>>> News Release <<<
>>> ---------------- <<<
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
---------------------
July 29, 2003
For More Information Contact:
----------------------------
Tom Ness, Green House/M-FORE
www.greenhouseonline.org
e-mail: jamrag@glis.net
248-336-9241
Craig Covey, Ferndale City Council
www.covey4ferndale.com
e-mail: cscovey@aol.com
>> Ferndale Council Unanimous for Including IRV in Election Plan <<
>> ============================================================= <<
> 5-0 Vote on Resolution, Introduced by New Green Covey <
> <
> M-FORE Success Encourages a Dozen Local Groups Across State <
> to Build Interest in, Support for Advanced Voting Systems <
The Ferndale City Council voted 5-0 on Monday to pass a resolution
urging that a state election-reform plan include the advanced voting
method known as instant-runoff voting (IRV).
The resolution, introduced by Councilman Craig Covey, notes the
"many thousands of letters" of public comments supporting IRV and other
reforms. It asks the Michigan Federal Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA)
State Plan Committee to endorse IRV-compatibility in the plan, so the
capability can be implemented at little or no added cost as new voting
equipment is purchased with HAVA funds.
The committee is a blue-ribbon panel appointed by the Secretary of
State under the Federal Help Americans Vote Act (HAVA).
Ferndale's Green House is the headquarters of Michigan Focus on
Reforming Elections (M-FORE), which has been focusing on getting IRV
into the state HAVA plan and onto the state's agenda. M-FORE's Tom
Ness headed the letter-writing campaign, and is now moving ahead with
organizing the growing interest in IRV across Michigan. A dozen local
IRV groups have sprung up -- most in the metro Detroit area, but with
Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek and Marshall (Calhoun County)
among them.
And Ferndale is not resting on its laurels. Covey, who recently
joined the Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) and is running for re-election
this fall, and the full City Council are scheduled to hold a formal
presentation and debate August 25 on the merits of IRV and possible
implementation for city elections. A town meeting is planned for
September, adds Ness, who is disappointed in the state plan's lack
of responsiveness so far.
"A sincere and honest report would have at least acknowledged the
public comment the HAVA State Plan Committee requested. We're grateful
to the Ferndale City Council for helping us draw attention to this
failure of the democratic process."
Michigan's Home Rule City and Home Rule Village Acts allow the
use of IRV in local elections. The right to use such a "preferential
balloting" method was confirmed by a 1975 state Circuit Court decision
upholding the election of Albert Wheeler as Ann Arbor's first African
American mayor.
In IRV, voters can indicate not only their first choice for an
office, but also their second choice -- and as many more choices as
there are candidates they support. If no candidate gets over 50% of
first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is out and votes for that
candidate are distributed to those voters' next choices . . . and so on
until someone has a majority. In this way, IRV guarantees a consensus
choice. It also lets more people express more of their preferences,
and get more of what they want out of an election -- and it avoids
spending tax money on a poorly-attended second round of elections.
For more information on IRV and other election reforms, visit the
Center for Voting and Democracy at:
http://www.fairvote.org
For information about Ferndale City Council:
http://www.ferndale-mi.com/Government/CityCouncilOverview.htm
For more information on the Green House, visit:
http://www.greenhouseonline.org
For information on the Covey re-election campaign:
http://www.covey4ferndale.org
For more information on the Green Party of Michigan and its positions
on election reforms (including IRV) and other issues, visit:
http://www.migreens.org
# # #
Green Party of Michigan * 548 S. Main Street *
* Ann Arbor, MI 48104 * 734-663-3555
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Green Party of Michigan was formed in 1987 to address environmental
issues in Michigan politics. There are Greens organized in all 50 states
and the District of Columbia. Each state Green Party sets its own goals
and creates its own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:
Ecological Wisdom * Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice * Nonviolence
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Feminism * Respect for Diversity
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Responsibility Sustainability
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========================= text of resolution =========================
Full choice voting systems such as Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) have a
history of successful use in the United States, have been in continuous
use in many countries for over 100 years, and there is a growing
interest in returning to such methods locally and across the country,
and,
The city of Ann Arbor, Michigan conducted the last public election in
the United States using IRV in 1975, when the legality of IRV in
Michigan elections was affirmed, and,
Cambridge, Massachusetts has used a variant of full-choice voting to
elect its council since 1943 with great success, including a successful
adoption of computerized counting at very low cost, and,
IRV ensures that the winner of an office has majority support no matter
how many candidates run, ending the "spoiler" dilemma that voters often
face, and,
IRV saves taxpayers significant sums by eliminating the need for a
primary to reduce the number of candidates, and,
IRV improves the conduct of campaigns and discourages negative
campaigning as it encourages candidates to seek support from those also
supporting other candidates, and,
IRV improves the range of options offered to voters by keeping all the
candidates in the race until the final, higher-turnout election, and,
IRV ends the "lesser of evils" problem present in plurality elections,
where voters are forced to vote for a candidate they do not support to
avoid helping elect the candidate they least prefer, and,
IRV will improve voter interest and turnout by ensuring that races are
not decided at the primary, and,
Michigan Focus on Reforming Elections (M-FORE), Michigan Election
Reform Coalition (MERC), the NAACP, the California League of Women
Voters and many other organizations publicly support Instant Runoff
Voting, and,
The Federal HAVA (Help America Vote Act) Act provides $68 million
dollars to the State of Michigan for new voting machines, and
Ferndale's current voting machines are obsolete under HAVA, and,
The Michigan HAVA State Plan Committee is a blue-ribbon committee
charged with issuing a report recommending what type of voting
machines should be purchased, and,
The Michigan HAVA State Plan Committee has asked for public comment,
resulting in many thousands of letters, including from Ferndale,
asking the Committee to endorse IRV compatibility in its final report,
and,
The preliminary draft of the report has so far failed to acknowledge
that public comment, and,
Election machine vendors have stated that IRV compatibility costs
little or nothing if ordered when the machines are originally
purchased, but that future upgrades are considerably expensive and
not always even possible, and
IRV-compatibility provides an option which Michigan citizens may in
the future choose to employ, but purchase of machines which are either
prohibitively expensive or simply impossible to upgrade for IRV
compatibility will render moot the growing debate over the merits
of IRV,
Therefore, be it resolved that the City of Ferndale urges the Michigan
HAVA State Plan Committee to endorse IRV-compatibility in its final
report.
Be it also resolved that if the Michigan HAVA State Plan Committee
Report does not recommend IRV-compatibility, then the City of Ferndale
calls on the Michigan legislature to include IRV compatibility in a
new law, and calls on the local election administrator to advocate for
and consider IRV compatibility in the next order of equipment locally.
==================== list of local IRV groups ======================
============ (for more information, contact M-FORE) ================
* Ann Arbor Citizens for IRV
* Bloomfield Township Citizens for IRV
* Calhoun Alliance for Reforming Elections (CARE)
* Commerce Township Citizens for IRV
* Ferndale Citizens for IRV
* Hamtramck Citizens for IRV
* Kalamazoo Citizens for IRV
* Lansing Instant Runoff Voting
* Madison Heights Instant Runoff Voting
* Pleasant Ridge Citizens for IRV
* Wixom Citizens for IRV
* Ypsilanti Citizens for IRV
Other Contacts:
Green Party of Michigan
548 S Main St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3555
info@migreens.org
posted to web 30 July 2003