Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley and San Leandro, California were early adopters of what has now become a national movement for electoral reform. Ranked choice voting in the Bay Area has changed the political game, forcing voters and candidates to adopt to a new set of democratic rules and political strategies.
In the last decade experiments in democratic innovation have flourished across the country in city and local government agencies in every region, catalyzed by administrators committed to a more active citizenry. On issues such as crime prevention, affordable housing, urban planning, land use and conservation, utility and service provision, and even general budgeting, public participation is actively welcomed in to the work of government.
