LONG BEACH - In this year's mayoral elections, less than a quarter of the registered voters in Long Beach cast a ballot, and even after a primary and a general election, no candidate received a majority of the votes. Citing those facts, several Long Beach residents want to change the way the city elects its leaders, and those leaders are listening to their ideas. The City Council on Tuesday night voted unanimously to instruct the Election Oversight Committee to evaluate how instant runoff voting would affect the city's elections. Any modification from the current standard of an April primary and a June runoff would require a vote of the people and a change to the City Charter.

In instant runoff voting, voters rank the candidates. So instead of filling in the circle next to one candidate's name, voters put a 1 next to their favorite candidate, a 2 next to their second choice, a 3 next to their third choice, and so on. If no candidate has a majority of first-choice votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The remaining candidates then receive votes as second choices on the eliminated candidate's ballots. The process is repeated until one candidate has a majority of the votes.

Although proponents of instant runoff voting acknowledge that it can confuse voters at first, they say in the long run it will encourage more participation by voters and save time and money by eliminating primary elections.

"I'm pushing for instant runoff voting because it's something that will save city funds, get more voters out there and focus elections differently," said Coby Skye, who with the Long Beach Greens is organizing a community forum on electoral reform on Saturday at the California Community Center. "No one I've talked to has said they didn't like the idea, but a lot of people want to study it a little further, and I think that's understandable."

First District Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal, who initiated the council's discussion of instant runoff voting, called the turnout in this year's elections "abysmal," and she said she thought instant runoff voting might renew voter interest. "I continue to be interested in improving our elections," Lowenthal said.

If this year's mayoral election had used instant runoff voting, the voters would have ranked all the candidates from 1 to 7, rather than selecting only one top choice. A winner would have been named as soon as the votes from the first election were counted, instead of after a second election, which Skye called a major advantage of instant runoff voting. "We had an expenditure of funds for the runoff election, but still no one got a majority of votes," Skye said.

Fourth District Councilman Dennis Carroll said he wanted to study any method of voting that would improve upon this year's elections.

"After having watched the mayoral election, I was totally glad I wasn't involved with it," Carroll said. In addition to the Long Beach mayoral election, Skye pointed to the 2000 presidential election, in which no candidate received a majority of the votes, as an example of a case when instant runoff voting would have been helpful. He said many voters who felt torn between Al Gore and Ralph Nader could have ranked Nader 1 and Gore 2.

"It really came to a head at the last presidential election, when a lot of people were worried about the spoiler issue," Skye said. "They wanted to vote for Ralph Nader but they didn't want to help George W. Bush. (With instant runoff voting) voters no longer have to feel that they're backing the lesser of two evils."

Although relatively few municipalities use instant runoff voting, it is gaining momentum. Both Oakland and San Francisco use it in some elections, and Alaska is considering switching to instant runoff voting throughout the state.

Skye said he and other supporters of instant runoff voting think it will take time to convince the city to change its electoral policies. He added that the most important goal is to get people talking about it. "The City Council discussion will raise awareness in some people's minds," he said.

Saturday's community forum will start at 1 p.m. at California Community Center, 1550 Martin Luther King Ave. Call 234-2827.