Jerry Brown votes, calls ranked-choice voting ‘complexifying’

By on October 30, 2014 3:25 PM

Gov. Jerry Brown voted early Thursday morning and refused to say much about which boxes he marked on his multi-page ballot except to note that he still found Oakland’s form of ranked-choice voting “complexifying.”

Brown, an Oakland resident, earlier this month endorsed Councilwoman Libby Schaaf to be the next mayor of Oakland. But when asked Thursday whom he put has his second and third choices, Brown wouldn’t say.

“I find this ranked-choice system very complexifying,” Brown said with a smirk. “As someone who been voting for a long long time I think it is somewhat of a challenge.”

Asked if he even made a second- or third-choice pick, Brown refused to say.

“That would be getting into the whole ‘secrecy of the ballot box’ thing,” Brown said.

Brown did say that he felt confident going into his final race for Governor and voted early because he will be attending a funeral Tuesday for Placer County Sheriff’s Department Detective Michael Davis who was shot to death last week.

Brown encouraged other voters to head to their local registrar and vote before Tuesday.

“This ballot is relatively complicated, there are a lot of things to do so it is good to do it early,” Brown said after spending 8 minutes and 11 second filling out his ballot.

Brown, wearing an orange tie, was joined by his wife, Anne Gust Brown, and their dog, Sutter Brown, who had an orange handkerchief tied around his neck. He said he’d spent Wednesday night watching the Giants defeat the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.

“We’re all in orange, including Sutter, so I would say it is pretty amazing,” Brown said. “I want to see the A’s come along soon, so hopefully the A’s will start winning soon.”


Categories: Governors's race, Jerry Brown, Oakland, Oakland Athletics
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