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Thank you,
Jake Tonkel
District 6
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There are so many reasons RCV should be banned:
· Ranked Choice Voting is complex and confuses large numbers of voters.
Disturbing numbers of mis-marked and therefore discounted ballots emerge in this system. This is disenfranchisement.
· Voters unwilling to go against their conscience and indicate even a low ranking for candidates they find completely undesirable will have no say in the ultimate outcome if their first choice(s) is eliminated. This is disenfranchisement.
· Ranked Choice Voting flies in the face of the “one citizen/one vote” imperative, and violates the entire democratic process.
· While Ranked Choice Voting does eliminate the need for run-off elections when no candidate achieves 50% + 1 of the votes, it leaves the people with the lowest common denominator, desirable in mathematics but anathema in a Constitutional Republic.
· Ranked Choice voting is virtually un-auditable, which fails to meet the federal standards of election validity and accountability. This is unconstitutional.
single-round RCV election. The judgment would remain with the Council, case by case. This is added flexibility, not a constraint.
RCV also improves equity and participation in special elections, which historically experience low and unrepresentative turnout. Eliminating additional election rounds reduces barriers for working families, seniors, and other underrepresented voters who may not be able to participate multiple times. RCV also incentivizes candidates to appeal to a broader electorate, resulting in more civil campaigns and outcomes that better reflect the will of the community.
RCV has been successfully implemented in dozens of jurisdictions across the Bay Area and entire country and is proven to be easy for voters to understand and use, regardless of age, race, income level, or language spoken. Santa Clara County’s Registrar of Voters currently has the technological capability to implement RCV, making it both practical and fiscally responsible.
By giving voters the option of RCV for vacancy elections, San José can run smarter elections, save millions of dollars, and reinvest those funds directly into essential public services. It is a true win-win:
better elections, a wiser use of taxpayer dollars, and stronger outcomes for our community.
While no one anymore expects a District 4 vacancy this December, vacancies can occur at any time and their timing is often unpredictable. (The District 3 vacancy mentioned above was just such an unpredictable vacancy.) If the charter isn't amended this November to allow RCV to be used in special elections to fill vacancies, the next opportunity to amend the charter isn't until March 2028, and if an unexpected vacancy occurs before then the City will end up spending $1M more than it would otherwise need to.
SBPA urges you to refer this question to the voters on the November 2026 ballot, so that the people of San José can decide whether to give their City Council this commonsense, cost-saving option.
Stay safe, healthy and blessed!
With gratitude,
Carmen Brammer
CEO/Founder, Global Majority Consulting
South Bay Progressive Alliance Steering Committee
District 1 Community Leadership Award Recipient | Santa Clara County | Board Of Supervisors
In memory of my mother:
"Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life." --Anne Riophe
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This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. the poll's multiple times in a few short months. RCV also incentivizes candidates to appeal to a broader electorate, resulting in more collaborative campaigns and outcomes that better reflect the collective will of the community.
RCV has been successfully implemented in dozens of jurisdictions across the Bay Area and the entire country, proving to be easy for voters to navigate regardless of age, race, income level, or language spoken. Santa Clara County’s Registrar of Voters currently has the technological capability to implement RCV, making it both practical and fiscally responsible.
By giving voters the alternative of RCV for vacancy elections, San José can run efficient special elections, safeguard millions of taxpayer dollars, and reinvest those funds directly into essential public services. It is a true win-win: smarter elections, wiser fiscal management, and stronger democratic outcomes for our community.
It is only right that RCV be included on our November 2026 ballot to let the voters of San José decide whether they're going to equip their City Council with this effective, cost-saving option.
Stay safe, healthy and blessed!
With gratitude,
Carmen Brammer
CEO/Founder, Global Majority Consulting
District 1 Community Leadership Award Recipient | Santa Clara County | Board Of Supervisors
In memory of my mother:
"Grief is in two parts. The first is loss. The second is the remaking of life." --Anne Riophe
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
The contents of this email message and any attachments are intended solely for the addressee(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information and may be legally protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message or their agent, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply email and then delete this message and any attachments. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, copying, or storage of this message or its attachments is strictly prohibited.
Maine 2024 82% said RCV is easy. 57% liked having the ability to rank candidates.
New York City 2025 96% found their ballot simple to complete. 76% wanted to keep RCV or expand it to general elections
Charlottesville 2025 89% supported using RCV in future elections.
California Bay Area cities 2024 92% understood RCV well. 70% wanted to keep or expand RCV.
Arlington, VA 2024 88% said RCV was easy. 67% supported using RCV in future elections.
Portland, OR 2024 Voters preferred RCV to the previous voting method by more than a 2-to-1 margin (63%-28%). 91% understood RCV.
Utah cities 2023 94% were satisfied with RCV. 82% said it was easy, and 67% said they were more likely to vote for their favorite candidate because of RCV.
Boulder, CO 2023 86% said RCV was easy. 77% were satisfied with their voting experience.
Virginia Republicans 2022 56% who voted in primaries using RCV preferred it to single-choice elections.
Minneapolis, MN 2021 88% found RCV simple. 76% wanted to continue using RCV.
New York City 2021 95% found their ballot simple to complete. 77% supported using RCV in future local elections.
Utah cities 2021 86% were satisfied with their voting experience. 81% found RCV easy.
Santa Fe, NM 2018 94% were very or somewhat satisfied with RCV. 71% supported RCV in future elections.
Opponents say it is unauditable, yet every RCV election in California goes through the same audit process that non-RCV elections do.
Opponents say it can't be hand-counted, yet RCV has been used in Australia since the 1920s and Cambridge, Massachusetts since the 1940s, when those ballots had to be hand-counted because machines were not available then to count RCV ballots. While RCV is machine-counted today, if someone really wanted to request (and pay for) a hand-counted recount of an RCV election, it would be easy to hand-count the ballots. Tedious, but easy.
Finally, while a vocal minority may oppose RCV, as part of the effort to get the County to switch to RCV for its elections, we commissioned EMC Research to survey likely voters on their support or opposition to RCV.
Among other questions, they asked the San José voters in the sample if they would like to see the City of San José adopt RCV. After hearing a short explanation of how RCV works, sixty-three per cent of San José voters said that they support ranked choice voting for city council and mayoral elections. (That is for all elections, not just special elections.)
But the final word should come from the voters. Please put the proposed charter amendment on the ballot so the voters can decide whether to give the City Council the ability to use RCV to fill vacancies in special elections.
Sincerely.
--Steve Chessin
Co-chair, Better Elections for Santa Clara County President, Californians for Electoral Reform
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The Town of Los Gatos
District 5
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Thank you for your time,
Sofia M. Kappen
Los Gatos
Santa Clara County, District 9
This message is from outside the City email system. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. -Compassion
-Commitment
-Consistency
-Courage
-Community Centeredness
Artist/Creative
Expand TRUST in SJ! Mental Health Matters!
Political Ambassador, Afro UPRIS/Black Democratic Club of SCC: Black Lives and Black Permanency Matters!
Chair Ad-Hoc Committee on Housing and Homelessness, SCCDP Board of Directors, Human Agenda
Choir+ Member of Urban Sanctuary
Build the Bench 2025 Cohort, Member of SVYD
Civic Leadership 2026 Cohort, Silicon Valley at Home
New Leadership Council SV 2026 Cohort
Housing Justice Advocate
Downtown Resident of District 3: St. James/Julian Neighborhood
Values: Honesty, Kindness, Compassion, Courage, Justice
"Democracy only works when we work for it. When we fight for it, when we demand it."~Stacey Abrams
Thank you!