by Dan Johnson-Weinberger
April 24, 2003
In March, instant runoff voting implementation legislation
passed a state house for the first time in at least a decade. It also won a
plurality of votes in the state senate, but needed a majority of all potential votes
to win.
Representative Horace Hardwick (R-Bentonville) introduced HB
2485, which would implement the Louisiana-style instant runoff voting for
overseas military voters casting an absentee ballot in local runoff
elections. The bill would make voting easier for servicemen and women because
they could vote in both the primary and the runoff election at one time,
using a preferential ballot instead of finding the means to cast two
separate absentee ballots while overseas.
The bill passed the House on an 89-1 vote
(one voting present and 10 not voting) on March 20th. Senator Ed
Wilkinson (D-Greenwood), a Navy veteran, picked up the bill in the
Senate, and worked in two amendments, but ultimately the bill died
on April 10th on a 15-10-9 vote (15 voting yes, 10 voting no and 9
voting present).
