It's been awhile since I've sent one of these emails, and for that I
apologize. I trust you've read the newsletter, so I don't need to
repeat the information there.

We continue our outreach to the Republican Party. In addition to
tabling at their convention in Anaheim last September, we tabled at
their convention in Sacramento last month. Response has been good, and
we expect to pick up more Republican support for our legislation as a
result.

We aren't neglecting the Democratic Party, either. At this weekend's
Board meeting we will consider tabling at their convention in Sacramento
in April.

Many of our members, including three Board members, attended the
California Constitutional Convention Summit sponsored by (among others)
the Bay Area Council, California Common Cause, the League of Women
Voters, and the New America Foundation. They made sure that
proportional representation was discussed at the Summit.

In his veto message for AB 1294 last term, Governor Schwarzenegger
implied that we needed more experience with IRV before opening the
floodgates for it. So this term CfER is sponsoring AB 1121 (authored
by Assemblymember Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles), which is a scaled-down
version of AB 1294. It establishes a pilot project limited to the
first ten general law cities or counties that ask to use either IRV or
Choice Voting. (It does not affect the right of any charter city or
harter county to use them.) We trust that the Governor will sign it
once it reaches his desk. We will keep you posted on its progress and
will most likely ask for your help as it makes its way through the
Legislature.

After a long wait, the Secretary of State's office sent CfER a first
draft of its proposed guidelines for conducting IRV elections. Rob
Dickinson and I reviewed them and gave the writers our feedback, and
we're waiting for a second draft that we will circulate to a larger
group. We're not sure how long the process will take, but when finished
we'll finally have an official set of guidelines to which we can point
county election officials that till now have been reluctant to implement
IRV despite local enabling legislation.

All this and more, including planning for the May 30th Annual General
Meeting, will be discussed at our quarterly Board/Coord meeting this
Saturday, March 7th. The Northern California location will be at the
home of Chuck O'Neil Chuck O'Neil and Pat Naylor, 686 Riverlake Way,
Sacramento CA 95831, 916-391-6274. The Southern California location is
TBD; contact me by 5pm Friday if you're in Southern California and
would like to participate.

--Steve Chessin
President, Californians for Electoral Reform
www.cfer.org
steve.chessin@...
1426 Lloyd Way, Mountain View, CA 94040
(650)-786-6200(w), (650)-962-8412(h)

"If you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own."
--Scoop Nisker

** Calendar Appointment **

Date: 3/7/09
Start: 10:00 am
End: 5:00 pm
What: CfER Board/Coord Meeting
NoCal location: 686 Riverlake Way, Sacramento CA 95831
SoCal location: TBD