Please accept my apologies for multiple postings. Please forward this message.

It has been used successfully in San Francisco for 3 election cycles; in Australia for over a century; to elect the mayor of London for close to a decade. Pierce County/Tacoma Wash is set to use it for the first time in November.

In cities and counties around the nation, more and more people are saying with their vote that they want to use it. In every local election in which it has been on the ballot, it has won with strong majorities.

With some organizing work now, we could use it here in Oregon as well.

What is it?

INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING (IRV)!

If we had it, Portland city council candidate Amanda Fritz would not be preparing for a second race for the city council. She won 43% of the vote in May and is now in a runoff election against Charles Lewis (he got just a bit over 12%). With instant runoff voting, she would already know if she will be on the city council or not. Saves time; saves money. If she was elected, she would be preparing to assume office, instead of preparing for the runoff election.

If we had it, the Oregonian headline "GOP Spoiler? Libertarian bid worries some Republicans” would never have been written. The Libertarian presidential candidate could run for office without being charged with being a spoiler. Instead we could consider the ideas he brings to the table, not if he is spoiling the chances for John McCain.

Likewise, Ralph Nader or a Green Party candidate could run; people could vote for them without being charged with wasting their votes.

It is in the Oregon Constitution. The Oregon Constitution was amended via the initiative process to allow for preference voting; IRV is a form of preference voting.

In spite of this, we have never used IRV in Oregon. We are told that the legislature must enact enabling legislation. During the last legislative session, such enabling legislation was proposed and almost received a vote in the Oregon House.

It will be re-introduced in the 2009 session.

Now is the time to promote IRV, to educate our elected officials and candidates on the Nov ballot and to gain their support. Those elected officials would be city council people, mayors, state representatives and state senators.

Please join us in this historic effort. We can do this!

Please join us in a planning/organizing meeting

Meeting place: 1st Unitarian Church, SW 12th and Salmon, Buchan Bldg, 1st Fl. Portland OR
Meeting Date: Tuesday, July 15th
Meeting Time: 7 – 9 pm.

Please rsvp to David Delk at 503 232 5495 or davidafd@msn.com

David e. Delk, Alliance for Democracy - Portland Chapter 503 232 5495 www.afd-pdx.org