Once becoming a charter city, the charter committee could safely implement one of these alternative voting systems within the districts and have full protection from the CVRA.

The charter option just gives the city flexibility depending on what happens over the next couple of years. For example, the California Voting Rights Act could be overturned by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional, leaving the federal Voting Rights Act in place. A couple cities with 'deep pockets' are trying to make that happen. Or, the unidentified Menlo Park sponsor of the CVRA threat may somehow indicate that with the 2018 election, and expected demographic changes, the CVRA has done its job for Menlo Park, and the city should improve on district elections. An alternative would be 'ranked-choice voting' city-wide. Kevin Shenkman, the attorney representing the CVRA threat, at one time stated methods such as ranked-choice voting could be an acceptable 'remedy', even though some attorneys might disagree. The messages for residents are: District voting is undesirable for Menlo Park; our city is small for districts and it's desirable for the entire city to be involved in all council elections. We want to unify, not divide. The city needs to have the option to change to a better voting system if that becomes possible with low risk. The charter amendment is about being ready to make a choice, not making the choice itself.