Week 5: How the Irish Elect Their Legislature

Dear Colorado Voter,

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, I'm sharing some resources on Ireland's Single Transferable Vote (STV) elections. Colorado statute allows cities to use STV – which RCV for Longmont prefers to call Multi-Winner Ranked Choice Voting. Proportional Ranked Voting is another descriptive name for this voting method and emphasizes the resulting proportional representation!

• Here's a cute 5-minute video of Irish 6th graders at Scoil Cholmcille An Tearmann in County Donegal explaining Single Transferable Vote. https://www.rte.ie/news/2024/1128/1483485-how-does-voting-work/

• Here's a 67-minute 2018 RadioLab show following the tabulation of an actual Irish governmental election. https://radiolab.org/podcast/tweak-vote/transcript — You can read the transcript or listen to the show. Halfway through the show, the focus shifts to other ranked voting elections, including single-winner (non-proportional) elections. (If you want to keep track of the different types of ranked voting methods, here is a handy reference article "What Is RCV Anyway?" https://thefulcrum.us/electoral-reforms/what-is-ranked-choice-voting-2106755)

Most democratic republics use a Party List system which ensures proportional representation by political parties. Since city council races in Colorado don't list party labels, STV is the only currently available option for municipalities. Yesterday I went to the Review and Comment Hearing for Initiatives 262, 263 and 264 which would elect members of the state legislature proportionally based on voter support for political parties. https://leg.colorado.gov/initiatives/initiatives-filed — These initiatives were submitted just before the deadline so getting them on the November ballot won't be easy, but I'm thrilled that the conversation is starting.

One might argue that, like the initiatives, I started this Secretary of State campaign late, but since I'm not participating in the primary election, I'm hopeful that I'm not too late. This is the end of week 5, with 33 weeks to go!

Please help spread the word about my candidacy. Encourage people to check out https://www.celeste4sos.com/, sign up for these weekly email updates, attend an event listed on the website or co-host an event, and contribute to the campaign so that I can have the resources to run a serious campaign.

If you want campaign news more often than once a week, please follow the campaign on social media. You don't need an account to see my public posts. See the bottom of any campaign website page for links to our social media accounts.

With enthusiasm and purpose,

Celeste