| Michael Feinstein | City Watch LA |
RANKED CHOICE – If Los Angeles was designing a democracy, would we create a system where an incumbent who was rejected by the voters, got to stay in office for another nine months after the election they lost?
”One election instead of two
Under LA’ s system, an incumbent can be defeated in the primary but still stay in the seat for six to nine more months after being rejected by the voters. By needing only a single election to choose a winner(s), a single PRCV or RCV election avoids unnecessarily distracting incumbents from doing their jobs while in office, because they only have to run a single campaign centered upon a November general election, compared to potentially two rounds stretching over most of the year.
There are also multiple financial benefits. Holding only a single PRCV or RCV election would save the City of Los Angeles substantial money by not having to pay LA County to conduct two elections instead of one; candidates would only have to raise money to run in one election instead of two, and the City’s limited public financing matching funds would only have to be allocated for one election instead of two .