Ten Things You Can Do To Help
Promote Instant
Runoff Voting
by Lou Traxel, [email protected]
January 2001
- Call,
write or email your state legislators and your Members of
Congress about instant runoff voting legislation. They can
sponsor existing legislation -- see our page on pending
legislation, or introduce a version of a bill
from another state.
- Ask
to speak at your next city council meeting and encourage them to use
IRV. Explain why we need a new voting system, how IRV works, and
why it would solve so many problems. Consider bringing different
types of cookies or other snacks with pre-printed IRV ballots and
have a sample election to determine everyone's favorite.
- Get
involved with your local public high school through a Social
Studies teacher and arrange to speak to the students about IRV
either in class or after school. Promote IRV for use in student
elections. High school students are our next generation of voters,
so educating them on the issue is extremely important.
- Encourage
organizations that you are involved with to use IRV for their own
internal elections. The more people use IRV, the more
familiar they will become with it. Eventually, they will demand to
have it implemented at all levels of government.
- Write
a letter to a sympathetic editor at your local newspaper, and
persuade him or her to write an opinion/editorial piece promoting
IRV. This is a good way to keep the issue in the public eye.
- Host
a house party around a theme to use and teach others about IRV.
Some examples include a movie party where the guests vote for
which movie to watch, or a wine- or beer-tasting party where the
guests sample various drinks and vote for their favorite. Have
pre-printed ballots for everyone to fill out to show them how easy
it really is.
- Consider
running for office. People are much more likely to listen to you
when you talk about policy issues if they know you are serious
about it.
- Set
up a booth at your local art show or farmers market to
promote IRV. Be sure to have plenty of merchandise such as
T-shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, brochures, pens, and coffee
mugs. To order the merchandise, contact the Center for Voting and
Democracy at www.fairvote.org.
- Share
audio or video tapes discussing IRV with your local public radio
and television stations, and ask them to broadcast the
information. Public stations are generally required to air
information of interest to the public. For copies of these tapes,
contact the Center for Voting and Democracy at www.fairvote.org.
- Join
an IRV internet list serve to network with others and stay on
top of what is going on with the movement nationally and in your
state. Visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/instantrunoff
|