Modification: Pico Neighborhood Association v. City of Santa Monica

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA

PICO NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION et al.,

Plaintiffs and Respondents,

v.

CITY OF SANTA MONICA,

Defendant and Appellant.

No. S263972

Second Appellate District, Division Eight

B295935

Los Angeles County Superior Court

BC616804

Filed September 20, 2023

ORDER MODIFYING OPINION

THE COURT:

The opinion in this matter, filed on August 24, 2023, and appearing at 15 Cal.5th 292, is modified as follows:

The text of footnote 8 on page 317 of the opinion is deleted in its entirety and replaced with the following:

Under ranked choice voting, a voter ranks candidates in order of preference. In an election to fill more than one seat, such as for a city council, each ballot is counted at the start of tabulation as one vote for its first-choice ranked candidate. Any candidate with more votes than the election threshold (see fn. 11, post) is declared elected. If the first round of the vote counting does not fill all the seats, then the system consults the next-ranked choices from the ballots supporting the candidate with the least number of votes, the next-ranked choices from the surplus ballots (i.e., those in excess of what was needed for the elected candidate to win), or both. Jurisdictions use a variety of methods to determine when and how to transfer the next-ranked choices from surplus ballots. This form of tabulation continues until all seats are filled. (See Tideman, The Single Transferable Vote (Winter 1995) 9 J. Econ. Persp. 27, 27-28, 32-35; see generally Note, The Madisonian Case for Ranked Choice Voting: Federalist No. 10, Preferential Voting, and the American Democratic Tradition (2021) 23 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol'y 953, 963.)

This modification does not affect the judgment.

Nonparty David A. Holtzman's request for modification of the opinion is denied.