(Fwd) Minutes of 1/21 IRV working group mtg

["Art Goodtimes" <goodtimes@independence.net>]

GPOCfolk

Tom and his group are actively involved in IRV proposals for
Colorado. Do we want to be involved in this. I would think so.

art


------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 13 Feb 2001 04:01:00 -0700
From:           	Tom McIntyre <irvnow@bwn.net>
To:             	Green Party of Colorado <grns-gpoc@greens.org>,
 	Boulder Green Alliance <grns-colo-bga@greens.org>
Subject:        	Minutes of 1/21 IRV working group mtg
Send reply to:  	Tom McIntyre <irvnow@bwn.net>

Big thanks to J Bollinger for putting these together.  Our next
meeting is this Thursday, 2/15, 6:30 pm on CU Boulder campus in
Hellems room 229.  -- Tom


01/21/01 Meeting MINUTES
for the
Instant Runoff Voting Working Group
of the
Green Party of Colorado

ATTENDEES: include Tom McIntyre (convening), Cyrus Hall,  Trevor
Stone,  Coco (938-8550), Lynn Segal, & J.Bollinger.

Minutes shall be initiated by J.Bollinger and e-mailed to Tom  ( at
IRVnow@bwn.net ) for final form for him to e-mail

GOALS & TIMETABLE:
Initiate effort to gather CO Legislative support soon, which
potentially could result in a State Bill to enable IRV for all
Colorado single office elections. Theoretically, the State Legislature
could pass such a bill this autumn 2001. (afternote:  since meeting we
have learned there is no second session in 2001.) The Proposal for the
future CO bill could be similar to the recent Washington State
petition for an IRV bill. Even if passing an IRV bill in the CO Houses
becomes infeasible, we should be able to build up at least a number of
allies and sponsors in the Houses, which would then be invaluable for
supporting a Ballot Initiative. One result could be for the
legislature to commission to study best electoral reforms, like IRV.

Start Ballot Initiative.
Submit IRV Ballot Initiative final text to State, preferably by
December 2001. Start campaign to gather approx. 100,000 signatures in
early Spring 2002. Finalize Ballot Initiative with all signatures by
Sept. 2002, to be on Nov. 2002 ballot. Raise funds.  Build coalitions.
Publicize IRV.  Publicize initiative effort. Hire petition circulating
company probably, to help coordinate the massive petition effort.

Alternatives to IRV:  Discussion.
Approval Voting:  (Give an approval vote for as many of the candidates
as you like.)  - Easier & technically quicker to implement, than IRV.
 - Would prevent the spoiler phenomenon.  Cannot give your 1st choice
more weight than your 2nd choice.   - Not well known.  Our discussion
seemed to not support Approval Voting as feasible, but we did not
entirely discount it. Cumulative Voting.   Weighed average variation.
Proportional Representation voting could come later after IRV is
finally approved.  IRV would enable 3rd parties to survive and be more
influential, so that later 3rd parties would have more success with
future PR .  IRV should not conflict with PR, because IRV applies to
single office elections, and PR applies to multi-seat elections. Our
website Forum could engender discussion on all alternatives.

WEB SITE:
Name of Site, & Name of our Group = ??
Refer to handout of suggested names.  "FairVoteColorado.org" was
chosen as the name for our website-to-be.  "FairVoteCO.org" also had
good support among us.  "RunoffVoteCO.org", "JustVote.org" and
"ABetterWayToVote.org" had less support. Group names considered
include:  Coloradans for Fair Voting,   Fair Vote Colorado,
Coloradans for Instant Runoff Voting,   Instant Runoff Vote Colorado,
…  It was decided that choosing a name should be a matter discussed
via the website, and decided by the coalition when it is formed. We
supported starting the web site soon.

MISC.:
Mention of the Summit of 3rd Parties in Denver on Jan. 14th.
Supported IRV broadly, even though the NY Times 1/15 article on this
summit meeting did not mention IRV.  Included Green, Libertarian,
Reform & Natural Law parties.  They plan to meet again in 2 or 3
months.  This could be an excellent resource for broadening our
support for IRV.  Can we obtain more useful info. on the results of
their summit meeting? Rocky Dialogs Public Forum at Boulder Theatre
Sun. 1/28 5:15 set up at IRV table, 6 pm reception, 7:30 forum event,
& at table until about ½ hour after event.  See Coco (738-8550) for
info. on helping at the IRV table. Refer to Tom's 1 page write-up on
overall strategy, & to his 2 pp. introduction, "No More Spoiled
Elections.".

ASSIGNMENTS:
Each member help with contacting 3rd Parties & other related
organizations.  Tom to create a standard letter to send to each.
(afternote:  at the BCGP meeting later the same day, reservations were
expressed about proceeding with coalition building before the next
third parties summit, and so outreach will not include any proposal or
suggestion of coalition at this time) Trevor: Libertarian Party Cyrus:
 Reform Party Coco:  League of Women Voters J.:  Reclaiming Democracy
(Jeff) Lynn:  Other Groups:  Common Cause, Constitution Party,
Socialist Party,  Prohibition Party,  & other minor parties, such as
the Democrat & Republican Party (Other responsibilities to be
described later.)

--
Tom McIntyre
____________________________________________________________________
irvnow@bwn.net                303-245-0627    (anytime - if I check)
gemini2@bwn.net
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