You win some, you lose some

Ranked Choice Voting went one win, one loss last week in two separate city council decisions. On the other side of the Sangres, the Las Vegas city council approved a draft home rule municipal charter that includes Ranked Choice Voting for future local elections. The proposed charter will go before voters March 2, 2010.

But here in Santa Fe, the city council approved an election resolution that does not include Ranked Choice.

As outlined in a previous posting on this site, Santa Fe city clerk Yolanda Vigil and attorney Frank Katz conducted a thorough demonstration of Ranked Choice Voting that showed it can be done using existing machines. Nonetheless, they decided against implementation for reasons outlined in an October 29 memo to councillors.

Voting Matters has been encouraging the city to make necessary election code changes that would accommodate Ranked Choice Voting, such as increasing the canvassing period to ten days to allow time to conduct the runoff. But now the election is just around the corner and the council would probably not be able to make changes before the March 2010 election.

Ranked Choice Voting was approved by 65% of the voters after passing through three city committees and approval by a unanimous vote of the council. The city failed to act, and failed the residents of Santa Fe in this regard. It is unfortunate that they chose not to implement the clear will of the majority of Santa Feans.