RulesCommunications Highlights 2008 0103

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City Council Rules and Communications Committee January 3, 2008 Page 2 The City of Oakland holds a Nominating Election in June of even-numbered years. The two candidates with the most votes in each race in the Primary Election participate in a runoff election in November. Since Oakland's election cycle is the same as San Leandro's, the considerations they will need to make with regard to IRV will in many ways be similar. The Oakland City Council is expected to decide whether or not to cancel its June election by February 5, 2008. The City of Berkeley holds its General Election in November of even-numbered years. Pursuant to its Charter, Berkeley's use of IRV cannot result in higher election costs. This requirement may not be met if Berkeley is the only city poised to use IRV in November 2008. Berkeley is expected to make its decision on IRV sometime in February. The possibility of counting the IRV election ballots by hand, rather by machine, has been suggested as a possible alternative, since hand counting could be accomplished without the certification of system software and firmware. The Town of Cary, North Carolina held an IRV election in October 2007, and hand counted the approximately 3,000 ballots cast. Hand counting procedures were developed by Cary for its IRV election, and could be modified for use in California. If hand counting regulations are adopted by the Secretary of State, then Alameda County maybe able to conduct IRV elections for the three cities without aState-certified IRV system. The ROV is looking into the feasibility of utilizing the "Cary Method" as a backup counting method for IRV elections in November 2008; however, the Registrar has indicated that he could not consider conducting an IRV election if it compromised the other elections for which the ROV is responsible. In December 2007, the City and County of San Francisco purchased Sequoia voting equipment, and plans to use the Sequoia IRV system for its election in November 2008. San Francisco's agreement includes a hand count of ballots by Sequoia in the event its IRV system is not State- certified byNovember 2008. CONCLUSION It will likely be a few more months before Sequoia's IRV system is fully certified for use. In the meantime, the Council will need to take action to either change the date of the City's General Municipal Election from June to November 2008, or to call the election for June 2008. The Committee should discuss and determine which of these two options to recommend to the Council.