Archive - draft Coordinating Committee election procedures

Internal Elections

The following is based in part on procedural changes adopted by the General Assembly during the December 2000 plenary. Proposed bylaws implementing these changes are scheduled for consideration by the General Assembly during the April 2001 plenary.

During the first General Assembly meeting of each year, the Green Party of California conducts elections for representatives to the Coordinating Committee.

There are two types of CC representatives: Regional and At-Large. Regional CC representatives are selected by regional caucus of delegates at the General Assembly meetings unless the active counties of the region select another process. At-Large CC representatives are elected by the entire General Assembly. There can be up to 14 regional reps and 6 at-large reps each serving two-year terms. These are staggered terms so only half of these seats are open during each election (regional seat availability may be dependent on varying regional processes -- check your regional rep or caucus for details).

The rest of this document will focus on the procedures for the at-large election. The elections are conducted using a variant of Choice Voting.

Choice Voting (also called Single Transferable Vote) is a form of preference voting (PV) where candidates are ranked in order of preference similar to Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). IRV is used for single seat elections while Choice Voting is used for multiple seat elections. Choice Voting is one method to achieve proportional representation (PR), a major electoral reform advocated by the GPCA.

There are a few different variants possible with Choice Voting. The GPCA has chosen to use "fractional transfers", a "Droop threshold", and a "NOC" option.

A Droop threshold is one way to define the minimum number of votes that must be exceeded to be elected. A Droop threshold is defined using the formula 1/(n+1) where n is the number of open seats. In this case, since three seats are open, the threshold is 1/4 of the total amount of votes cast.

Fractional transfers refer to the way excess votes are transferred from candidates passing the minimum threshold. During the transfer process, all votes from the successful candidate are transferred but the total vote "worth" is modified to equal the total "excess" vote received by the candidate.

The No Other Candidate (NOC) option is included in the ballot and can be ranked like any other candidate. Ranking the NOC option is a way of indicating your preference that no other candidate should be elected.

For more detail, check the following documents:

• Elections Guidance Document, drafted by Caleb Kleppner, co-coordinator of the Electoral Reform WG
  (PDF file)
• Choice Voting Example, an appendix to the Guidance document above
  (PDF file)
• GPCA Bylaws, version current as of Dec 2000
  (PDF file)
• At-Large Election bylaws proposal, implementing much of the above procedure, drafted by Rick Newberry, Bylaws Committee
  (PDF file)