The San Jose City Council will decide on Monday whether to fill two upcoming vacancies by disenfranchising about one-fifth of the city’s voters.
A judge will hold a hearing Tuesday on whether the Alameda County Board of Supervisors last year filled a vacancy with a carpetbagger who wasn’t eligible to serve.
An Antioch race decided by just three votes, in which the winner garnered support of barely a third of her district’s electorate, will determine the balance of power on the badly fractured City Council.
In the Martinez mayoral race, the winner enjoyed the support of less than one-quarter of the voters.
And the race for one of the seats on the Richmond City Council ended in a tie.
Those South and East Bay examples provide local-election lessons: More jurisdictions should adopt ranked-choice voting. Board vacancies should be filled by voters, not other elected officials, especially for the increasing number of city councils and school boards with district elections. And those who say their vote won’t count should think again.
San Jose
Councilman Matt Mahan’s election as mayor and Councilwoman Sylvia Arenas’ election to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will create vacancies for two of the city’s 10 City Council districts. That’s why the council will meet Monday to decide whether to fill the vacancies by appointment or call a special election.
The appointment alternative should be a non-starter. A selection before the end of the year would be made by a council comprised of six lame-duck members. After the first of the year, it would be made by a council with no representatives of the constituents of the two affected districts.
Alameda County
The Board of Supervisor’s selection last year of David Brown to complete the term of the late Wilma Chan demonstrates just how badly the appointment process can be abused. Brown had only lived in the county for four days.
After the state attorney general stalled the filing of litigation over the selection, the case has languished before Judge Michael Markman since June. By the time it’s resolved, the outcome will probably have no practical effect, as Brown’s term is about to run out.
Martinez and Antioch
The results in these two cities exemplify why more jurisdictions should adopt ranked-choice elections to ensure that the winner has majority support.
Under ranked choice, voters prioritize their picks. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, the last-place finisher is eliminated. The votes of those who had listed the dropped candidate as their first choice are then reallocated to the voters’ second choice. The process continues until one candidate garners a majority of the votes.
In the Martinez mayor race, Councilwoman Brianne Zorn narrowly won the six-way contest but only with 24% of the vote. That’s hardly a mandate.
The District 1 Antioch City Council race, which determined the balance of power on a very contentious five-member council, provides another example.
Incumbent Tamisha Torres-Walker, the hard-left candidate in the race, won reelection by three votes over second-place finisher Joy Motts, the moderate candidate. But that’s only because Motts split the opposition vote with conservative candidate Diane Gibson-Gray, who was close behind in third place.
The result: Torres-Walker will retain her seat but with only 34% support in her district. And her reelection means that the left-leaning council majority will remain in control. Had ranked-choice voting been in place, Motts would have almost certainly won — and could have provided reasoned middle ground to ease the council’s dysfunctional division.
Richmond
For those who say their vote doesn’t matter, consider not only the three-vote margin in the Antioch City Council race but also the District 2 Richmond City Council race, in which Andrew Butt and Cesar Zepeda finished in a tie. The race will be determined by a drawing of lots.
It’s not the first time. In the 1992 Martinez school board race, Howard Barto and Bob Repicky finished tied for the third and final seat. The school district drew lots and Repicky won.
The kicker: Barto defeated himself. At the polls, he could vote for up to three candidates. He cast three votes, including one for himself and one for Repicky. If he had just voted for himself, he would have won.
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