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Memphis City Council Hijinks?

The Memphis City Council is under attack from various disenchanted citizens regarding several alleged pro-incumbent referenda it voted onto the November ballot — one that would counter the council’s current two-term limit for members, another that would negate the Shelby County Election Commission’s plans for ranked choice voting (RCV) in the 2019 city election, and another that would abolish all runoff elections. Now new scrutiny is arising on the question of how and when three council members might be replaced should they win other elected positions they are seeking in the August county general election.

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City Council Controversy

We have some controversy over the future of Memphis City Council. Three council members are running for county positions in this upcoming election. However, a law states that the members have 90 days to resign from their positions due to this election. If they resign, then the election commission could hold a special election to replace those seats. If they don’t resign then it would be up to City Council to replace those three seats. Save IRV Memphis members Theryn Bond and John Marek said it should be the citizens who decide who fills those seats.

On The Ballot: Instant Runoff Voting

Seven out of 10 Memphis voters have already said they want instant run-off voting in local elections, and the Shelby County Election Commission is scheduled to put that into place next year. However, a City Council vote from December will once again put it on the ballot this November. Save IRV Memphis is waging a campaign to explain how it works. Pastor Earle Fisher and Carlos Ochoa with Save IRV Memphis joined us to explain.

Save IRV Campaign Aims To Allow For Instant Runoff…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – A group of supporters launched a campaign Tuesday with the goal to save instant runoff voting (IRV).

With instant runoff voting, voters rank the candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a majority of first place votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The ballots are then redistributed according to the voter’s choices.

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Coalition champions opposition to repeal of instant runoff voting

Save IRV Memphis, a grassroots coalition opposed to repealing the instant runoff voting (IRV) provision, made a public display of that opposition on Tuesday at the IBEW 474 Hall.

Save IRV Memphis Spokesperson Theryn C. Bond said this is not an issue that is split by party affiliations.

“This is a collective effort across party lines,” Bond said. “In November we want you to say no to repealing IRV and term limits.”

In 2008, the Memphis Charter Review Commission unanimously voted to place a pro-IRV referendum on the ballot. In a citywide referendum election, voters supported IRV by 71 percent.

Read the remainder of the article here.

On Saving IRV

President Trump’s act of political sabotage by his cavalier scuttling on Tuesday afternoon of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more familiarly known as “the Iran Nuclear Deal,” is not the only ongoing case of official political vandalism. There is some in our own midst.

There is, for example, the fact that important local initiatives passed overwhelmingly by popular referendum within the past decade are in grave peril of being abrogated. A press conference held Tuesday morning at the IBEW Union Hall by a bipartisan citizens’ group calling itself Save IRV Memphis noted for the record that a 2008 city referendum in favor of IRV (Instant Runoff Voting, aka Ranked Choice Voting) had passed by a 71 percent vote in its favor. In a nutshell, what the IRV process would do is eliminate the costly and ill-attended runoff elections required under the present system in district elections without a first-round majority winner.

You can read the remainder of the article here.

Instant Runoff Advocate Reacts to Council Vote for Anti-Runoff…

The following is an exchange between Allan Wade, counsel for the Memphis City Council, and Steve Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor, former Shelby County Commissioner, and leading advocate of instant runoff voting for local elections. The exchange relates to an ordinance — passed 11-2 by the Council on Tuesday — establishing a referendum that could eliminate all runoff voting in city elections. Mulroy’s reference to being “out of the country” refers to a sabbatical law fellowship of his, now ongoing in Canberra, Australia.

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EDITORIAL: Take Current Council Members Out of Three-Term-Limit Question

For all of the names currently circulating for this or that office on one of the three election days we’ll have in Shelby County this year, it might help somewhere near the outset to remember who and what this is about.

This year will probably have a few ballot questions of a local nature for us to consider.

Memphis voters will decide whether to do away with ranked-choice (aka instant runoff) voting before it can ever be used in Memphis City Council races in 2019.

Read the rest of The Daily News Editorial here.

Memphis City Council Duplicity

Are they kidding? There can be several legitimate arguments adduced for and against the process of voting known as both Instant Runoff Voting and Ranked Choice Voting, but the Memphis City Council’s current campaign against the process has gone way out of bounds.

Read the rest of the Memphis Flyer Editorial here.

Editorial: One person, one vote, one big mess

Maybe every election should have a do-over. That seems to be the prevailing position of the Memphis City Council.

In 2008, 155,000 Memphians voted to approve instant runoff voting, a new method of electing city council members that does away with traditional second-election runoffs.

Read the remainder of this Commercial Appeal Editorial here.