On
Tuesday March 7, Burlington, VT became the first city in the U.S. in
over 30 years to
elect its mayor using instant runoff voting (IRV) in what Vermont media
termed a "flawless" election. In addition, FairVote's Caleb
Kleppner has written a report on the Burlington election, the links can
be found below.
After the first round of
counting, no candidate garnered the required majority to win outright.
Progressive candidate Bob Kiss received 39% of first choices,
Democrat Hinda Miller 31%, and Republican Kevin Curley 26%. At this
point an instant runoff kicked in. Curley and two other independent
candidates were eliminated and their supporters' second choices counted. This
gave Kiss enough votes to cross the majority threshold and win the race.
Voters
found the system easy to use and understand, and almost no
trouble with the balloting was reported. In fact, out of every 1,000
voters in the mayoral race, 999 cast a valid ballot. The Progressive
Party
has been active in Vermont politics for decades, and Burlington has
elected several Progressive mayors in the past under the previous
plurality system.
[ Read "IRV deemed a success" in the Burlington Free Press ][ Read an AP story on the election ][ More on IRV in Vermont ][ Read Caleb Kleppner's Report on Burlington's Election (.pdf/396 Kb) ][ Read Caleb Kleppner's Election Analysis (.xls/3.05 Mb) ]