Chapter 1-11 — GENERAL MUNICIPAL ELECTION

Article 1 General(Legislative History: Ordinance No. 2005-008, 7/5/05; Ordinance No. 2010-002, 2/1/ 10 (Sections 1-11-100, 1-11-105))

Note: Editor's note: Article 1, consisting of Sections 1-11-100 and 1-11-105, derived from Ordinance Nos. 95-008, 97-019, 99-008 and 2005-008, was repealed and replaced by Ordinance No. 2010-002.

(a) The General Municipal Election of the City of San Leandro for the year 2010 shall be consolidated with the Statewide General Election to be conducted on November 2, 2010.

(b) Future General Municipal Elections of the City of San Leandro shall be consolidated with the Statewide General Election to be conducted the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of each even-numbered year.

Pursuant to Charter Section 235, the term of office for those persons elected to City offices shall commence on January 1 following the election.

Article 2

(Reserved)(Legislative History: Ordinance No. 97-022, 6/30/97 (Section 1-11-200); Ordinance No. 2005-022 repealed Article 2 (Section 1-11-200))

Article 3

Conduct(Legislative History: Ordinance No. 2010-005, 4/19/10)

Ranked Choice Voting: "Ranked choice voting" shall mean an election system in which voters rank the candidates for office in order of preference, and the ballots are counted in rounds that simulate a series of runoffs until one candidate receives a majority of votes. Ranked choice voting is also known as "instant runoff voting."

Majority of Votes: "Majority of votes" shall mean 50% plus one of the votes cast on continuing ballots.

Continuing Ballot: "Continuing ballot" shall mean a ballot that counts towards a continuing candidate.

Continuing Candidate: "Continuing candidate" shall mean a candidate that has not been eliminated.

Choice: "Choice" means an indication on a ballot of a voter's assigned ranking of candidates (i.e., first choice, second choice, third choice, etc.) for any single office according to the voter's preference.

Vote: "Vote" means a ballot choice that is counted toward the election of a candidate. During each round of counting, each continuing ballot contains one vote. All first choices are votes and lower ranked choices are potential runoff votes that may, in accordance with the requirements of this chapter, become votes and subsequently credited for a continuing candidate.

Round of Counting: "Round of counting" or "round" means a step in the counting process during which votes for all continuing candidates are tabulated for the purpose of determining whether a candidate has achieved a majority of the votes cast for a particular office, and, absent a majority, which candidate or candidates must be eliminated.

Next Ranked: "Next ranked" means the highest ranked choice for a continuing candidate.

(a) Ranked choice voting elections for the offices of Mayor and City Councilmember shall be conducted according to the procedures in this Chapter.

(b) Ranked choice voting shall commence with the 2010 General Municipal Election and continue for all general municipal elections thereafter unless later repealed or invalidated by a subsequent Federal, State or City law, statute, rule, regulation, or ordinance.

(c) The Alameda County Registrar of Voters must agree to the request for all election services that allow the City to use ranked choice voting and consolidation of the election prior to the use of ranked choice voting.

The request for election services submitted to the Registrar of Voters shall include all requirements and procedures enumerated in this Chapter.

(a) The ranked choice voting ballot shall allow voters to rank at least three choices.

(b) The ballot shall not interfere with a voter's ability to rank a write-in candidate.

The ballots shall be counted in rounds.

(a) In the first round, every ballot shall count as a vote towards the first choice candidate.

(b) After any round, if any candidate receives a majority of votes from the continuing ballots,
that candidate shall be declared the winner.

(c) If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate receiving the fewest number of votes
shall be eliminated.

(d) Every ballot counting towards the eliminated candidate shall be advanced to the next-
ranked continuing candidate. All the continuing ballots for all continuing candidates shall
be counted again in a new round.

In the event that two or more candidates tie for the fewest number of votes, the candidate to eliminate shall be chosen by lot.