To the editor, Willamette Week, Thank you for the article, "Minor Parties' Major Roadblock." http://wweek.com/editorial/3531/12669 As the only citizen to testify at the hearing in the Oregon Senate on SB 326, I found your coverage timely and important. But Senator Devlin and fellow Democrats have by their actions in recent weeks not only shut off discussion of House Bill 2414, allowing cross-nomination of candidates, and of Senate Bill 326, repealing a discriminatory restriction on candidate petitions and nominations; Devlin has, which is of greater significance in the fight for fair and democratic elections, blocked Senate Bill 29. That bill would allow the implementation in Oregon of ranked voting in multiple-candidate races. Once voters have the option of listing several candidates in order of preference, and counts decide eventual winners by instantly selecting the one with the highest total preference (so-called Instant Runoff Voting), the spoiler effect, where solid plurality votes override split tickets, would disappear. For example, if IRV had been in place in Florida when Bush ran against Gore, the Nader voters who put Gore as their second choice would have assured Gore a decisive victory. The Oregon Constitution (Art. II, sect. 16) explicitly guarantees the voters of this state the right to ranked ballots. It is a democratic reform dating to the Progressive Era in our history. The former Oregon Director of Elections under Bill Bradbury, however, issued a technical opinion to halt such implementation. The present Democratic Secretary of State, Kate Brown, on the other hand, promised during her campaign in 2008 to overturn this misinterpretation, which has so far been a failed promise. Instant Runoff Voting, which has been waiting for nearly 100 years for its guaranteed implementation, is a major electoral reform which will allow minor parties to receive electoral support without the prospect of spoiling the election. This is the number one reason voters give for withholding support or votes from minor parties. It represents a deepening and broadening of recording the wishes of the people, the real purpose of democratic elections. Because Senator Devlin has been a problem for election reform this session, as you've so well illustrated, the Pacific Green Party has been recruiting candidates to run against him for his Senate seat. We are working with other minor parties to put up candidates on his left and center, while asking the far right parties to stay out. Perhaps he will see directly how spoiling an election really works and thus see the need for reforming our election system even though his big union backers provide him with large donations checks I affectionately call "expensive blinders." Cordially, Seth Woolley 2008 Secretary of State Candidate, Pacific Green Party of Oregon Secretary and Coordinating Committee Member, Pacific Green Party of Oregon