STEP 1: Know the Terrain
Before you begin a campaign to adopt PAR in your town or city, you will need to be able to explain to people:
To see a one-page summary of the above, click here.
STEP 2: Prepare Literature
You will need literature that explains PAR to anyone whose support you seek. To see a one-page flyer, click here. We also recommend that you put together a four-to-eight page booklet that makes a case for PAR in your community. For that purpose, you are free to use any information on this website that will help you make that case. We just ask that you cite CCD as the source.
You will also need to be prepared to answer the questions and doubts that local residents and politicians will raise. On this website, we have tried to answer many of those questions. If you encounter others, please email us and we will provide possible answers as quickly as we can.
STEP 3A: Spread the Word
Next, you will need to make presentations at local civic organizations, churches, political committees, and other gatherings. In some cases, it may help to conduct a sample election. Either way, every time you speak, you should ask people to sign up to receive regular information. And you may want to enlist the most energized members of the audience to join your committee for reform.
STEP 3B (Optional): Start on a Small Scale
One effective way to build support for reform is to try to convince local organizations to use PAR to elect their governing board, including your church board, union committee, PTA, neighborhood association, local party committee, or nonprofit organization. On many university campuses, students have converted their student government elections to a preferential voting system: instant runoff voting (IRV). These examples will help you build support for reforming your local government.
STEP 4: Use the Media
An integral part of any campaign for reform is to make your case in op-eds, letters to the editor and interviews on local broadcast media. For these purposes, you are free to use any information on this website.
STEP 5: Seek Individual Political Support
In almost every community, there are elected officials critical of the status quo and open to genuine reform. Winning them over will greatly improve your odds of success. The more supporters you have in the community, the more persuasive your literature, the more public pressure you can mobilize, the greater your odds of persuading reform-minded political leaders to support PAR.
STEP 6 : Seek Support from Local Government
The shortest path to reform is to have a government body recommend the adoption of PAR. Many cities form commissions to review the city charter on a regular basis. You or your most prominent supporters can try to obtain a seat on the commission. If that’s not feasible, you can send written materials to the commission that spell out flaws in the current election system and ways to improve it. You can also ask to make a live presentation to the commission.
If your community does not conduct regular reviews of its charter, you may still be able to convince the town or city council to form a commission that would issue recommendations for improving local elections.
STEP 7: Pressure Your Local Legislature to Act
Even if no government body recommends PAR, once you develop enough support in the community, you can ask members of your town or city council who support PAR to sponsor legislation adopting it for your local government. You and those sponsors will need to identify in advance which members of the council are likely to object, what their objections are likely to be, and what counter-arguments are most likely to turn them around.
STEP 8: Getting PAR on the Ballot
Should the council decline to pass PAR, your council supporters can then sponsor a measure to take the matter directly to the voters by putting PAR on the ballot.
If that attempt fails, the remaining route to reform is a citizen-sponsored ballot initiative. Although citizen-backed initiative drives are time-consuming and labor-intensive, they can be a good way to educate voters about the need and benefits of reform.
STEP 9: Winning the Ballot Initiative
Once PAR is scheduled to be on the ballot, you will need to assemble a team of volunteers who will distribute easy-to-understand literature to voters. To pay for the literature and for advertisements in the local media, you may need to hold fundraisers and invite likely supporters to attend. You should also step up your efforts to gain the endorsements of key political leaders, organizations and local editorial boards.
STEP 10: Implementation
If your campaign for PAR is successful, you will need to stay in touch with local officials to develop a timetable for implementation. You will need to make sure that voters are educated about the new system, that the ballot is easy to understand, and that the voting equipment can process preferential ballots.
At any point in the above process, if you need additional information, please contact us at: www.genuinerepresentation.org
*Adapted from FairVote.org