Discussion on What to Ask Primary Candidates

Posted on by David Green

Are you wondering why we have such a big disconnect between what people want and what our politicians vote for?

Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans support policies like progressive taxation, yet many elected officials continue to vote against them. This gap between public opinion and political action raises an important question: how do we hold candidates accountable for where they truly stand?

As 2026 is a big election year, we want to make it easier for people to ask candidates questions to see where they really stand on a series of issues.

Our team has updated our Policy Platform (link) and we’d like to invite you into a conversation about what questions candidates should be answering during the primary season.

  • What are the most important issues voters can ask candidates about?
  • How can we frame questions to avoid vague or evasive “non-answers” and get clear, substantive responses?

Hosted by David Green & Kirsten Maynard

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STAR Voting vs Ranked Choice Voting

Posted on by David Green

Our partner, Good Gov LA, brings together people interested in healthier democracy.  There are many techniques we can use for this in Los Angeles, including public funding for elections,  participatory budgeting and others.

On October 15, we will focus on how we can upgrade the voting system at its root.

The “first past the post” voting system we are all familiar with has inherent flaws which lead to more polarized races, strategic voting by voters rather than expressing their true preference, and often result in the election of a representative who the majority of voters don’t support.

Many cities and states are looking to replace traditional voting with methods that encourage honest voting, allow more competitive candidates to run, promote positive campaigns and most importantly, elect candidates that actually represent the will of the people.

Two of the methods gaining traction to achieve these results are  Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) and STAR Voting

At this event, we will hear presentations from both STAR and RCV champions and then we will open it up for questions from the audience.

We welcome anyone interested in improving the health of our democracy.

This event is hosted by Good Gov LA, a coalition of groups and individuals working toward better democracy.

Speakers

Steve Chessin is the President of Californians for Electoral Reform.  https://cfer.org/

Arend Castelein is the chair of the Los Angeles chapter of Equal Vote. He also has a background in software engineering, and has led development of Equal Vote’s web applications, including bettervoting.com and rcvchangedalaska.com .

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How We Can Leverage the 2026 Elections

Posted on by David Green

We are entering election season for 2026 Elections.

Our team has been brainstorming various ways we can leverage the elections. Here are some ideas we have been tinkering with:

  • Getting phrases and ideas deeper into the public consciousness
  • Getting clarity from people running for office on where they stand on key policy issues
  • Producing an Election Guide for voters to ask Local Politicians where they stand
  • Creating cross-network alignment on the major issues

We want to widen this discussion to our network. So on Tuesday. Sept 30 at 4pm, we invite you to join us for a collaborative discussion.

Our hope is that this will lead to more cross-network work over the next 14 months. One thing that has become clear is that we must be responsive and current to the volatile landscape

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