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Los Angeles Daily News
Instant runoffs only real solution
By Al
Sheahen
October 20, 2003
In the recall election, the majority of California voters picked
a loser --yet again.
Arnold Schwarzenegger received 48 percent of the vote
in the Oct. 7 recall election. In other words, more people voted
against him than for him. In 2002, Gov. Gray Davis won with 47
percent of the vote.
Majority rule is a basic requirement of democracy. The
will of a minority should not defeat the will of the majority, as it
did in the last two gubernatorial elections.
We need a way to promote majority rule in a single
election to make sure that doesn't happen again. We need a system
that helps candidates win with less campaign cash. We need a system
that allows us to vote for the candidate we like without helping to
elect the one we don't.
We need instant-runoff voting or IRV.
IRV works simply. All you have to do is pick your
favorite candidate, followed by your second and third choices.
If a candidate has a majority of first choices, he or
she wins. If no one receives a majority, the last-place candidate is
eliminated, and the instant runoff begins. Your vote counts for your
favorite candidate who is still in the race.
The process is repeated until one candidate receives a
majority of votes. There is no need for a separate runoff election,
so we save millions of dollars. We improve voter turnout by giving
voters more choices. We promote positive, rather than negative,
campaigning.
On Oct. 7, Republicans who preferred Tom McClintock
could have listed him as their first choice and Schwarzenegger as
their second choice. Democrats, Greens and independents who
preferred Peter Camejo and Arianna Huffington could have listed them
as their first and second choices and Cruz Bustamante as their third
choice.
If we had IRV in our last presidential election, Pat
Buchanan, Ralph Nader and other minor party candidates would have
been eliminated, leaving voters with a clear, final choice between
Al Gore and George Bush. Whoever won, we would know the person won
because he or she represented the will of the majority of
Americans.
Instant-runoff voting is used to elect the mayor of
London, the president of Ireland and the Australian House of
Representatives. San Francisco voters have approved a ballot
initiative that would allow them to rank their top three preferences
for the offices of mayor, district attorney and sheriff. Eventually,
it will eliminate the need for the city's usual December runoff.
IRV eliminates the "spoiler" problem. Minor candidates
could no longer threaten major candidates. Voters can vote their
conscience, giving their first-choice vote to a candidate they think
may not win or make it to the runoff without fear of "wasting" their
vote.
IRV promotes positive campaigns. Candidates will need
to persuade voters to give them their first- or second-choice votes.
Attack ads and negative campaigning will not entice voters to give a
mudslinging candidate their second-choice vote.
IRV boosts voter turnout. Runoff elections can have
extremely low turnout.
Because in each runoff tally every voter's ballot is
counted for the candidate the voter most prefers among those still
in the race, the winner is always the candidate preferred by the
true majority.
A bill has been introduced in Sacramento -- Senate
Constitutional Amendment 14 by Sens. John Vasconcellos, Deirdre
Alpert, Sheila Kuehl, Jack Scott and Jackie Speier -- that would
establish IRV in California elections. An initiative is also in the
works.
IRV would ensure that everyone's vote counted,, that
no candidate would win without a majority.
In this computer age, there is no reason to accept
less than full democracy.
(Al Sheahen lives in Sherman Oaks. He is a member of
Results, a citizens lobby working to end hunger at home and
abroad.) |
