It looks as if the effort to repeal ranked-choice voting in Oakland has unraveled already. A group with close ties to ex-state Senator Don Perata’s campaign manager admitted to the Oakland Tribune that it won’t be able to gather the 20,000 signatures needed to qualify its proposal for the November ballot. And an alternative plan by Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, a longtime close friend and ally of Perata’s, to ask the city council to place the measure directly on the ballot does not have the necessary votes. De La Fuente, who plans to run for mayor this fall if there’s a recall election, has been a longtime opponent of ranked-choice voting, also known as instant-runoff voting. He worked with Perata in 2010 in an attempt to block Oakland from using it, even though 69 percent of city voters had approved the voting system. Perata later blamed ranked-choice voting for his loss in the 2010 mayor’s race to Jean Quan. Perata received more first-place votes than Quan did, but she garnered far more seconds and thirds, enabling her to win.
Earlier this month, Melquis Naveo, an employee of Perata’s 2010 campaign manager, Larry Tramutola, told the Express that his group was forging ahead with a signature-gathering effort to qualify the anti-ranked-choice measure for the November election. But then the Trib reported Naveo saying that his group instead had decided to depend on De La Fuente to take it to the council. Naveo acknowledged that his group, which was originally launched by Tramutola, was not going to be able to gather the necessary signatures.
Full Article: Ranked-Choice Voting Repeal Blocked | Seven Days | The Weekly News Roundup | East Bay Express.