Americans for Democratic
Action (ADA) Conference
June 2004
On June 25, The Center for Voting and Democracy attended the ADA
Conference in Washington, D.C. Our staff conducted a demonstration election using Instant
Runoff Voting to select John
Kerry's Vice Presidential running mate for the November election.
A total of 43 ballots were cast in our mock election. IRV
elections require majority support (50% plus one), so 23 votes were needed in
order to win. With 24 votes in the first count, John Edwards
had a majority and was the winner, making it unnecessary for any subsequent
rounds of counting. Bill Richardson came in a distant second with 4 votes, while
Howard Dean and Hillary Clinton tied for third place with 3 votes each.
While John Edwards did win the mock election, we redistributed the
votes as if no candidate had won a majority in order to demonstrate how IRV
works. This chart
details the process we used to count votes in this IRV election for Vice
President. Also, here is a summary of each round of vote-counting:
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First Round: Although Edwards won in the first round
with 24 votes, we carried out the Instant Runoff Voting process as if he did
not receive a clear majority. As stated above, Richardson had 4 votes,
and Clinton and Dean each had 3 votes. Richard Gephadrt, Wesley Clark
and Russ Feingold all received 2 votes, while John McCain, John Lewis and
write-in Barbara Boxer had 1 vote each. The three candidates with 1
vote each were all eliminated and their votes redistributed to the voters'
second-choice candidates.
-
Second Round: After McCain, Lewis and Boxer were
eliminated and the votes redistributed to other candidates, Edwards had a
total of 27 votes. As the preferred second-choice for backers of
McCain, Lewis and Boxer, Edwards gained all 3 of their votes. The rest
of the candidates' total votes remained unchanged. Gephardt, Clark and
Feingold, all with 2 votes, were eliminated since they had the least total
votes.
-
Third Round: Gephardt, Clark and Feingold supporters
evenly split their second-choices between Dean and Edwards. After
recounting the ballots, Dean and Edwards picked up 3 votes each.
Richardson and Clinton did not gain any additional votes and maintained
their 4 and 3 votes, respectively. With the lowest total votes, Clinton was
then eliminated.
-
Fourth Round: Clinton backers slightly favored
Edwards over Dean. After Clinton was eliminated, Edwards gained 2
votes and Dean gained 1 vote. Richardson remained the same. With 4 total
votes, Richardson was in last place and was eliminated.
-
Fifth Round: Richardson's supporters preferred
Edwards over Dean. After this final recount, Edwards' total increased
by 3 votes and Dean's by 1 vote. Edwards had 35 votes, while Dean followed
far behind with 8 votes. As these were the last two candidates, Dean
was eliminated and Edwards declared the winner.
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