Letters

New voting system would be more efficient,
fair

It looks like UCLA is on a path to better democracy. The Daily
Bruin has brought word to the world of Brian Neesby’s
proposal to redesign student government so it better represents the
student body (“Neesby’s proposal for USAC senate
continues in new academic year,” Sept. 25). At the heart of
the proposal is using the system of the “single transferable
vote” to elect senators.

STV elections use ranked-choice voting, where you vote for
candidates in the order you prefer them. It’s easy as 1, 2, 3
(first choice, second choice, third choice and so on). Using
ranked-choice ballots, STV makes elections much more fair than
limited vote-for-one contests. STV lets you help elect another
candidate on your preference list if your first choice gets more
than enough votes to win, and keeps your vote in the election if
your first choice is eliminated.

Voters like STV. Although STV can involve several rounds of vote
counting that might take a bit of time, they are instant runoff
elections because voters only have to vote once. Really, it’s
a form of abuse to call voters to the polls repeatedly when
there’s no particularly good reason to do so. If you voted in
the recent two-round race for mayor of Los Angeles, you have
probably felt what I’m talking about.

STV maximizes the percent of votes helping to elect winners,
providing fair representation for the broadest possible cross
section of the electorate. Because of this, other schools ““
including UC Berkeley, UC Davis and Princeton University ““
have STV elections. UCLA should join in soon.

David A. Holtzman

UCLA alumnus