Dear Friends,

We hope you’re enjoying this holiday season with family and friends! As the year is coming to a close, I’ve continued to process this most recent election and we can all agree this is an incredibly unique time in our history. It is clear, voters want and need real choices that truly reflect our diverse communities. We need to be free to vote for the candidates we like the best without worrying that we’ll help to elect the candidates we like the least.

Will you join us at FairVote California and donate a start-up gift?

California presents exciting opportunities to make a difference locally and statewide and showcase better approaches to elections for the rest of the country. Our work in the coming year, is to do just that. Build support and implement fair election systems that will result in better representation of our communities and be part of a national movement for change.

When Pedro Hernandez and I started FairVote California (FVCA) on August 1, we hit the ground running to support the ranked choice voting elections (RCV) in the Bay Area, specifically Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, and San Leandro. We had a lot of goals in our first few months and we’re proud to have accomplished them and much more.

We plan to continue the momentum from not only the Bay Area, but also the recent win in Maine. Mainers adopted ranked choice voting for their highest offices by 52% to 48%. In 2018, Maine will become the first state to use RCV to elect the governor, U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and state legislature. No more “spoilers” and “split votes.” Just democracy. We are sharing the good news across the state and there is hope for expanding RCV beyond the Bay Area.

In just the last month, we have had numerous conversations with new volunteers and leaders in the community and we’re excited to get to work. This includes a multi-prong strategy for 2017 at the local, regional, and state level. We’ll also continue to work with FairVote to advance a national agenda.

We have an ambitious plan and our work begins with you. With your generous support, we can ensure California voters have a stronger voice and greater choice in our election system.

Will you contribute an end-of-the-year gift to get us going strong for 2017?

Thank you in advance for your support!

Sincerely,

Jennifer S. Pae

Director, FairVote California