Alameda County's ranked choice voting races last fall produced a mysterious 'overvote anomaly'

An Albany councilmember crunched the numbers and found the percentage of overvotes in Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, and Albany ranked choice voting races last fall was notably high

☕️MORNING BUZZ

—Believe it or not, Oakland’s special election is just around the corner. Ballots will start appearing in mailboxes around St. Patrick’s Day for the April 15 election that includes races for mayor, District city council, and a ballot measure to increase the city’s sales tax by a half-cent to 10.75 percent.

Two concerns regarding the integrity of the ballot, however, have emerged, and both issues are unlikely to be settled before ballots are designed, printed, and mailed to voters.

In today’s newsletter, an intrepid Albany councilmember crunched the numbers and found ranked choice voting races last November in Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, and Albany showed a noticeably large amount of overvotes.

It strongly suggests something was amiss with the design of ranked choice ballots in each city and/or a lack of voter education.

An overvote occurs when a voter selects more candidates than allowed in a particular race. For instance, voting for three at-large candidates when only two seats are available. In these cases, a voter’s selections in the particular race are not counted.

In addition, Oakland’s city charter allows voters in its ranked choice voting elections to rank up to 10 candidates. This spring’s special election has exactly 10 candidates running for mayor.

But with a lawsuit pending, it’s unlikely voters will be allowed to rank more than five, as has been the case in recent Oakland elections.

—More inside:

• The first IE of the Oakland special election campaign season has emerged.

• San Leandro mayor proposed radical changes to city’s council districts and maps.

• East Bay state senator tells Trump administration to “come and get us!” after threat to investigate sanctuary city elected officials.

• Libby Schaaf once took on Trump over the issue of sanctuary cities and ICE agents and won.

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