Steve Peace on San Diego Politics and Reforming his own California Voting Reform

The author of California’s Top Two Candidates Open Primary, which took effect in 2012, wants to reform his reform.

Steve Peace, a founder of the Independent Voter Project, wants California to move to a system that would ask voters to rank 4 or 5 candidates instead of voting for just one. Alaska and Maine have adopted a similar Rank Choice Voting system.

Peace looks through the national political lens and the local one too to discuss voter reform on this episode of Dear San Diego. Listeners also get to hear about his family life (he says he’s an Uber driver for his grandkids) and the advice he gives young people.

The key moments in this episode are:

00:00:00 - Introduction to California's top two primary
00:01:29 - Inception of the top two primary
00:03:22 - How the top two primary works
00:08:24 - Flaws in the current political system
00:14:01 - Manipulation of the top two primary system
00:15:26 - The Power of Campaigns Driven by Turnout
00:17:27 - Political Maneuvering and Campaign Strategies
00:19:23 - The Influence of Committees and Political Alliances
00:22:29 - Advancing Electoral Reform: Ranked-Choice Voting
00:26:29 - The Need for Continuous Electoral Reform
00:31:02 - Ranked Choice Voting System
00:33:21 - Nonpartisan Top Four or Top Five System
00:35:17 - Reducing Campaign Costs
00:41:13 - Fixing Ranked Choice Voting
00:46:35 - Misjudging Willie Brown
00:48:27 - Steve Peace's Personal Life
00:53:30 - Motivations and Family
00:55:50 - Privacy Rights and Identity
01:00:17 - Childhood Influence
01:03:39 - Reflection on past behavior
01:05:13 - Advice for life
01:05:59 - Importance of facing adversity
01:07:02 - Perception of need and resilience
01:08:57 - Closing remarks

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