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Berkeley voters, at least those who showed up to the polls Tuesday, won’t need a second ballot to let the city and county know how they feel about Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). By a whopping 72 percent, Berkeley passed Measure I, which—if ever implemented—would allow Berkeley voters to rank candidates by preference in the general election and eliminate the need for costly runoff elections. 

Voters also approved two other election reforms that, unlike IRV, go into effect in November. One, Measure H, seeks to squash vanity candidates by requiring all candidates for elected office to gather 150 signatures or pay a filing fee of $150. The other, Measure J, lowers the vote threshold from 45 percent to 40 percent for the leading candidate to be declared the winner without a runoff election and pushes back runoffs from December to February. 

Two countywide ballot measures also passed, one which raises local bridge tolls $1 to fund transportation projects, including a proposed Berkeley Ferry, and the other, a half-cent sales tax hike to fund county hospitals and health care providers. 

While Berkeley residents appeared to be in a giving mood Tuesday, many didn’t even volunteer the time to fill out a ballot. Only 28,230, or 36%, of Berkeley’s estimated 70,000 voters cast ballots on Measure I. Less than 28,000 voted on Measure H and only 26,753 voted on Measure J. In 2002, the ballot measures garnered between 34,000 and 38,000 votes. Full Berkeley votes for state and county elections have not been provided by the Registrar of Voters. 

The landslide victory for Instant Runoff Voting heartened supporters who wondered if it would even garner 50 percent in the face of staunch opposition from some city councilmembers. 

“It was a stunning victory,” said Councilmember Dona Spring, a member of the Green Party, which has long advocated the system to allow disaffected Democrats to vote Green without the fear that they were helping to elect a Republican. 

The system would also spare the city runoff elections. In 2002, the runoff in District 8 cost the city $90,000, City Clerk Sherry Kelly said. 

“This is a very strong mandate that will help us go to the county to get this in operation as soon as possible,” said Spring, who is hoping a system could be in place and certified by the state by 2006. How Berkeley would actually stage IRV elections would be up to the City Council after they determine that the system is practical and cost effective. 

Spring’s time frame might be too optimistic, said Kelly. To get the system up and running, software has to be manufactured for Alameda County’s Diebold voting machines, the county has to integrate the system into its elections procedures and the state has to certify it—something California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley has so far been hesitant to do for San Francisco, which has had its IRV law on the books for two years, but still hasn’t been given the go-ahead. 

Considering that the county and Diebold continue to work out the kinks on the new touch-screen voting machines, adding complexity to the system won’t be a top priority in the next couple of years, Kelly said. 

Berkeley could stage its own election using IRV, but Alameda County doesn’t yet have the capacity to consolidate IRV ballots, said County Registrar Brad Clark. That means Berkeley would have to stage its own election at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Gordon Wozniak, the chief opponent of Measure I predicted Berkeley wouldn’t see IRV for at least 10 years. 

Berkeley’s other two winning ballot measures also have economic implications. By implementing a $150 filing fee for candidates, offset at the rate of one dollar for every signature collected, Berkeley hopes to cut back on the thousands it spends on administrative costs for vanity candidates. The measure passed with 62 percent of the vote. 

Michael Delacour, Berkeley’s most prolific third-party candidate for mayor, argued that the measure was more about stifling democracy, and though it was backed by several councilmembers, he blamed Mayor Tom Bates and his wife Assemblywoman Loni Hancock. 

“They’ve got quite a political machine, and they’re stomping on free speech anyway they can.” 

There was a similar divide for Measure H, backed by every councilmember, and passed by voters with 55 percent of the vote. By pushing runoff votes to February instead of 28 days after the general election, UC Berkeley students won’t be asked to vote during finals week, and the city clerk won’t have to rush through ballot mailings. Also by lowering the threshold for victory to 40 percent, the city might cut down on expensive runoff votes. 

Like Delacour, former Rent Board Commissioner Bob Migdal saw the measure as a further sign of Berkeley regressing from its egalitarian roots. “This was just about keeping councilmembers in office,” he said, remarking that despite no formal opposition the measure was nearly defeated. “I should have done something,” he added. “If the pro democracy group had gotten off its ass I think we could have defeated it.”  

One group that made its voice heard was supporters of Lyndon LaRouche—the left-wing student activist, turned fascist, turned Democrat, who has a history of anti-Semitism. LaRouche supporter Martin Garcia won one of the six slots on Berkeley’s Democratic Committee, which guides party strategies in the city.  

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