Still Need One Vote on Ranked Choice. Rally Monday

By paulgibson51 on December 1, 2017 • ( 0 )

Emergency City Council Meeting, Monday at 3:30. Rally at City Hall at 2:30. Despite constant calls from constituents and personal contacts from folks who know the Councilors, we are one vote short of finally achieving Ranked Choice Voting. Ten years to get to today. We need a huge turnout on Monday and calls/emails today. And breaking news: Flynn Pleads Guilty. Details included.

Coming Events: Before a critical update on the status of the City’s planning related to RCV, a reminder that there is a screening of tonight at 7pm at the Cocteau of a tremendous documentary on Guatemalan resistance 500 Years: Life in Resistance with a talk with the director and reception at Pranzo following. On Saturday at 11am on KSFR 101.1.FM, I will be interviewing Pia Gallegos, the co-author of Autopsy: The Democratic Party in Crisis, a searing critique of the Party that describes in detail both the mistakes of the campaign and the failure to learn from them. There was a ton of stuff in this report that I really hadn’t known. Click here to read Autopsy. Click here to get to our Events & Opportunities page for details on these and other coming events. Lastly, breaking news from moments ago. Go to google. Michael Flynn is pleading guilty to lying to the FBI at 10:30 this morning signaling likely cooperation with Mueller. The noose tightens. Click here.

Ranked Choice Voting: The Last Push

If you’ve been following the blog, you know much of what is included today, but this blog is not just for you, it is for the friends and neighbors with whom you can share this. More people need to understand what is at stake and to take action. Once you share the blog in social media and through email, we ask that you then contact as many friends as possible and ask them to make calls, send emails and attend the Rally on Monday.

We need a very big turnout on Monday to demonstrate to the Mayor and the Council that we want Ranked Choice Voting to let us elect a Mayor who represents the majority of our community. It is even more important that they hear from you before the Rally, so even if you have already written and called, please do so again and encourage others you know to do the same. Your voice matters.

It is entirely likely that without RCV we could elect a Mayor who is the first choice of 25% of the voters and that candidate could possibly be the second or third choice of almost no voters. Based upon prior turnout levels, less than 4000 votes could elect our next Mayor. We have four very good progressives running and they could split 75% of the vote.

But beyond our current election, voters chose RCV in 2008. It is time to implement. It wasn’t the Council’s fault that affordable equipment and software weren’t available until 2017, so blaming them for a ten year delay is completely unfair. Even in July when they voted to delay, there were uncertainties about the software being ready on time and concerns about implementing RCV from both the County and City clerks. BUT, Judge Thomson has ruled that:

The charter is clear: two criteria are required and then the city has “a non-discretionary obligation to implement,” and after 8 hours of expert testimony, the Judge has determined unequivocally that the conditions of the charter have been met; and
There is adequate time and a wide variety of resources available to support implementation.

These are not just anyone’s view, it is a District Court Judge who combed through a myriad of documents and heard eight hours of testimony. The Judge also issued a second order on Thursday saying, even if the City decides to appeal to the NM Supreme Court, implementation must still be started “without delay.”

Support is building:

We have secured commitments to vote to implement RCV now from the Mayor and Councilors Villarreal, Maestas and Lindell.
Mayoral candidates Noble, Webber and Maestas all support advancing RCV as do all three candidates for Dist. 2 City Council, both candidates for District 1 and one candidate for District 4 and we haven’t reached everyone yet.
From dialog with other Councilors, we know that the other five are wrestling with their decision.

Contact information for the undecided Councilors is below. Please call and email today, share this post and bring friends to the rally.

In Solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne

We Need One More Vote.

WE NEED ONE MORE VOTE FROM THE COUNCILORS LISTED BELOW

You can also call the city attorney and tell her you oppose any further appeal

Call to Action. Calls-Emails & Share this Announcement Broadly.

Kelley Brennan, City Attorney: (505) 955-6511. kabrennan@santafenm.gov

District 2. Peter Ives, District 2 Councilor, (505) 955-6816, pnives@santafenm.gov

District 3

Carmichael Dominguez, District 3 Councilor, (505) 955-6814, cadominguez@santafenm.gov
Chris Rivera, District 3 Councilor, (505) 955-6818, cmrivera@santafenm.gov

District 4