Santa Fe should use ranked-choice voting in ’18
The world has changed a lot since 2008. A person of color had never been elected president, and a Latina had never been elected governor of New Mexico. We had never heard of Uber, Instagram, Snapchat and the iPad, and Donald Trump was a reality TV star.
What hasn’t changed is this: Santa Fe still has not implemented ranked-choice voting. It’s more than nine years since an overwhelming majority of Santa Fe voters — 65 percent — supported a charter amendment to uphold majority rule and encourage cleaner campaigns by adopting ranked-choice voting for all elections.
Politicians had an excuse in the past, with technical barriers that would have created additional burdens on the city clerk. Yet while those barriers have been removed, the City Council on Wednesday voted 4-3 to delay ranked-choice voting once again.
That’s not the worst of it. Councilors did so with only a three-day notice of their discussion, without allowing any public comment and with two members of the council missing. They made this decision prematurely — more than four months earlier than in 2009.
They acted despite New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver assuring the city that the state’s voting equipment vendor is on target to have a certified system in place this year, long before our March 2018 elections. They did not consider straightforward backup options, such as the approach used successfully for electing 22 offices by ranked-choice voting in Minneapolis in 2013.
They acted over the strong objections of Mayor Javier Gonzales and Councilors Renee Villarreal and Joseph Maestas. After winning with less than 50 percent of the vote, Mayor Gonzales has consistently supported respecting the voters. In 2014, he said, “It’s important that people running for office have a mandate to lead, and the only way that can be achieved is through ranked voting where the ultimate winner has the support of a majority of the electorate.”
Political scientists Caroline Tolbert and Todd Donovan conducted surveys of 4,800 votes with the Eagleton Poll at Rutgers University in seven cities with ranked-choice voting and 14 without. They found that voters understand
ranked-choice voting at high rates, prefer it to their old voting rules, and experienced campaigns as more civil and engaging.
Four Bay Area cities use rankedchoice voting to elect 53 offices, with some of the most diverse electorates in the United States. Election of people of color has soared to 60 percent of the offices elected by ranked-choice voting, and most winners are taking office with far more votes than they did in previous elections. Berkeley elected its first Latino mayor with ranked-choice voting, while Oakland and San Francisco elected their first Asian-American mayors.
This is about our council respecting voters and upholding the law. It is unacceptable to rush this decision, deny public comment, silence the opinions of two councilors and expose the city to an expensive lawsuit.
There is a network in place to support the city clerk, and it includes retired election officials at the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center, with New Mexico’s Roman Montoya ready to help after years of experience in our state’s elections. I am also working with a wonderful group of Santa Fe residents on nonpartisan voter education plans proven in other cities.
A resounding majority of voters have asked for change, and we can have RCV elections in 2018. The City Council should allow the full council to vote after a process fostering real deliberation with public comment. As Mayor Gonzales says, “It’s important that people running for office have a mandate to lead.”