☆ Election roundup (2/14): Should cities like SJ consider Ranked-Choice Voting?
Many people criticize Pretty in Pink (1986) for setting up Andie—played by Molly Ringwald—with flashy but superficial heartthrob Blane. Should Andie have ended up with her genuine, goofy friend Duckie instead? (If we're judging by his lip-syncing skills, yes.)
Continuing our exclusive Opp Now post-election series, we hear today from Brian Holtz, SCC Libertarian Party secretary and Purissima Hills Water District director. Below, Holtz argues that SF's Ranked-Choice Voting system (in place since 2004) allows voters to elect more reasonable, broadly-supported candidates—not just pick the prettier of two evils.
Biggest win of the election?
Brian Holtz, Santa Clara County Libertarian Party secretary, Purissima Hills Water District director: I was glad to see a ray of hope for fans of electoral reform.
Incumbent San Francisco supervisor and “democratic socialist” Dean Preston would have won in a traditional, first-past-the-post voting system, but instead narrowly lost to tech entrepreneur Bilal Mahmood, thanks to Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).
As a Libertarian, I support RCV as a way voters can send a clearer signal of their preferences, instead of voting strategically for the lesser of two evils.
Another ray of hope is Prop. 33’s resounding loss.
Over 60 percent of voters rejected this brazen expansion of local authority for rent control, which Libertarians—and nearly all economists—oppose. Rent control just raises the drawbridge in favor of existing renters, and shuts out the often poorer people who need housing.
Government price controls, including of rental rates, inevitably create shortages—or exacerbate them. A dirty trick that, happily, we have averted.
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