League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	Alameda County, CA November 6, 2012 Election
	Measure R Council District Redistricting City of Berkeley City Charter Amendment - Majority Approval Required Pass: 31852 / 65.92% Yes votes ...... 16464 / 34.08% No votes See Also: Index of all Measures

Full Text of Measure R

CHARTER AMENDMENT TO ALLOW CITY COUNCIL TO ADOPT DECENNIAL REDISTRICTING PLAN The People of the City of Berkeley hereby amend the following sections of the Charter of the City of Berkeley to read as follows: Section 1. Section 9 of Article V of the Charter of the City of Berkeley is amended to read as follows: Section 9. Election and Districts. (a) The Mayor, Auditor and School Directors shall be elected at the general municipal election on a general ticket from the City at large. (b) The Councilmembers shall be elected at the general municipal election by districts. The Councilmembers shall be recalled by districts. (c) No later than December 31st of the third year following the year in which each decennial federal census is taken, commencing with the 2010 census, the Council shall by ordinance divide the City into eight Council districts. Any such redistricting shall become effective as of the next general election of Councilmembers immediately following the effective date of said ordinance. (1) In establishing and modifying district boundaries, the Council shall ensure that the districts continue to be as nearly equal in population as may be according to the census, taking into consideration topography, geography, cohesiveness, contiguity, integrity and compactness of territory of the districts, as well as existing communities of interest as defined in California Constitution Article XXI, section 2(d)(4), and shall utilize easily understood district boundaries such as major traffic arteries and geographic boundaries to the extent they are consistent with communities of interest. (2) Notwithstanding the foregoing paragraph, no change in the boundary or location of any district by redistricting may result in the residences of two sitting Council members being located in the same district. (d) Each Councilmember shall be elected by the electors within a Council district, must have resided in the District in which he or she is elected for a period of not less than thirty days immediately preceding the date he or she files a declaration of candidacy for the office of Councilmember, must continue to reside therein during his or her incumbency, and shall be removed from office upon ceasing to be such resident. (e) The candidate receiving the highest number of votes for the offices, respectively, of Mayor, Auditor and Councilmembers of the City shall be elected to such offices, provided that such candidate receives at least 40% of the votes cast for each such office. In the event that no candidate for Mayor, Auditor and Councilmember for one or more Council offices receives at least 40% of the votes cast for that office, then there shall be a runoff election between the two candidates receiving the most votes, which runoff election shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in February of the odd numbered year following the initial election. No other issues shall appear on the ballot of any runoff election. The successful candidate in any runoff election shall assume office on March 1, after the election results have been declared by the Council. If the provisions of Article III, Section 5, Paragraph 12 related to instant runoff voting are operative, the vote threshold requirements in this section shall have no application to municipal elections. (f) Should any provision of the amendment of this section be held invalid, the remainder of this section the amendment shall not be affected thereby, and such word, phrase, sentence, part, section, subsection, or other portion shall be severable, and the remaining provisions of this section shall remain in full force and effect. The voters hereby declares that they would have passed this section and each subsection, sentence, clause and phrase thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases had been declared invalid . Section 2. Section 5, subdivision 12 of Article III of the Charter of the City of Berkeley is amended to read as follows: For purposes of this charter "instant runoff voting" shall refer to a voting system which, in a single election, determines the candidate supported by the voters. Notwithstanding any section of this Charter to the contrary, upon a determination by the City Council of all of the following, that: a) the voting equipment and procedures are technically ready to handle instant runoff voting in municipal elections; b) instant runoff voting will not preclude the City from consolidating its municipal elections with the County; and c) instant runoff elections will not result in additional City election costs, the Council may by ordinance establish a system of instant runoff voting for the offices of Mayor, City Council, and Auditor in any manner permitted by the State of California Elections Code. Once the Council institutes a system of instant runoff voting, future elections shall be conducted as instant runoff voting elections, unless the Council finds that circumstances have changed such that one or more of the prior Council findings required by this section are no longer valid. In such case, the Council shall articulate the specific basis therefore in order to suspend an existing system of instant runoff voting. (12) Use of instant runoff voting in lieu of runoff elections. For purposes of this charter "instant runoff voting" shall refer to a voting system which, in a single election, determines the candidate supported by the voters. Notwithstanding any section of this Charter to the contrary, upon a determination by the City Council of all of the following, that: a) the voting equipment and procedures are technically ready to handle instant runoff voting in municipal elections; b) instant runoff voting will not preclude the City from consolidating its municipal elections with the County; and c) instant runoff elections will not result in additional City election costs, the Council may by ordinance establish a system of instant runoff voting for the offices of Mayor, City Council, and Auditor in any manner permitted by the State of California Elections Code. Once the Council institutes a system of instant runoff voting, future elections shall be conducted as instant runoff voting elections, unless the Council finds that circumstances have changed such that one or more of the prior Council findings required by this section are no longer valid. In such case, the Council shall articulate the specific basis therefore in order to suspend an existing system of instant runoff voting. Subdivision (e) of Section 9 of Article V relating to the percentage threshold to trigger a runoff election shall have no application to a system of instant runoff voting. The City Clerk shall conduct voter and community education to familiarize voters with instant runoff voting.