Tell Your Councilmember: It's Time for RCV!
In coalition with RCV in the LBC, DSA Long Beach is working to bring ranked-choice voting to our city for municipal elections via the local ballot initiative process.
Over the last several months, organizers have collected petition signatures, built a coalition of over a dozen local organizations, and garnered support from City Commissions. Most recently, the Commission on Women & Girls and the Equity and Human Relations Commissions have each taken the first steps towards recommending this change to Long Beach City Council.
City council has the ability to bypass the signature process and directly vote to put propositions on the ballot for local elections.
It's time to turn up the pressure on your councilmember and let them know that the broken voting system we have is not good enough. We demand greater democracy!
What is Ranked-choice Voting?
Ranked-choice voting (RCV) is a system that eliminates first-past-the-post, winner-take-all style elections. Instead, voters would rank candidates based on preference. Ballots for the least popular candidates are then redirected towards their second choice. This continues until one candidate reaches the established win threshold, commonly set at a 50%+1 majority.
Ranked-choice voting leads to greater voter satisfaction, turnout, and more democratic outcomes. It reduces incumbency bias, inequities in race and gender of representatives, and voting for the "lesser of two evils". This has been implemented across the country to great success in places like New York City where DSA member Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor under an RCV system.
You can also help the campaign by filling out the petition here.
What can you do?
Write to Your Councilmember!
Follow the link for your district to send a letter with a few clicks.
What's in the letter?
Send this pre-filled template based on your district at the links above.
As your constituent, I am writing to ask that you support bringing Ranked-choice Voting (RCV) to Long Beach.
RCV is a system that eliminates first-past-the-post, winner-take-all style elections. Instead, voters rank candidates based on preference. It’s already being used by unions, organizations, cities, and even entire states because it increases voter participation, reduces negative campaigning, and ensures winners have real majority support.
Under our current system, primaries carry more weight but often have lower turnout. This means many people in Long Beach do not actually vote for their representatives at all.
With RCV's instant runoff, there would only need to be one general election, saving voters time and money while increasing political participation.
Ranked-choice voting has been shown to produce greater voter satisfaction, increase turnout, reduce incumbency bias, and produce greater racial and gender equity parity among elected representatives. This is why two City Commissions (Women & Girls, Equity & Human Relations) have taken this up as an issue they are interested in championing.
I strongly support Ranked-choice Voting and I ask that you consider taking action to let the voters decide how they want to vote by putting this on the ballot.
Have more to say in support of RCV?
Use the email addresses listed on the page for your district to tailor the letter to your own thoughts and send directly from your inbox. We kindly request that you CC rcv@dsalb.org and RCV.in.the.lbc@gmail.com to connect it to the letter writing campaign to amplify the impact of the ask.