Will Oakland finally repeal ranked-choice voting?
by Harry Roth
A campaign to repeal ranked-choice voting is taking root in the city of Oakland, California. The effort is being spearheaded by former Oakland mayoral candidate Loren Taylor and city council member Noel Gallo. Loren Taylor and his supporters blame RCV for his loss last November.
But the push to repeal RCV goes deeper than disappointing election results. Since implementing ranked-choice voting back in 2010, Oakland has seen a steady rise in crime. Things have gotten so bad that Kaiser Permanente, Oakland's largest employer, recently told their employees to avoid having lunch downtown.
It's clear that ranked-choice voting has moved the city further to the left, enabling more extreme candidates to run and win elections. After gaining power, the “progressives” enabled by the system put public safety on the backburner while they focused on social justice initiatives. In the end, minorities were hit the hardest by the increase in crime and the overall decay of the city.
Seneca Scott, local activist and founder of Neighbors Together Oakland, had this to say about ranked-choice voting:
“It’s unconstitutional and has harmed the working class irreparably in Oakland, CA. The number of errors has increased nearly 10-fold since adopting this flawed system. Rigged Choice Voting is a more appropriate title.”
This repeal effort highlights the bipartisanship of stopping ranked-choice voting. Americans of all political stripes are coming together to ban or repeal RCV in their city or state. If the initiative succeeds, it’ll serve as a model for cities all over the country that made the mistake of implementing the broken system. Godspeed, Oakland.