Utah GOP Nominates US Representatives with IRV
May
2002
On May 11, 2002, the Utah Republican
Party nominated a candidate for US Representative and narrowed two
large fields to two candidates who will appear on the primary
election ballot on June 25, 2002. Please scroll down for more information about these
elections or check out the election
results.
We believe this is the first use of instant
runoff voting to nominate congressional candidates in over 70 years
in the United States.
The Deseret News
reported on the decision to
use instant runoff voting for nominations and pointed out the beneficial impact
this was having on campaign debate.
With 10 candidates for CD-1 and 12 in CD-2, the
previous method of voting -- multiple ballots -- would have taken
the 3,500 delegates literally hours to determine their nominees or
primary candidates. See below for more
details about the ballot counting, which was done by hand and which
apparently went smoothly, as well as results in the three races. There
were no exhausted ballots in the race with 3 candidates, and only 1%
in the races with 10 and 12 candidates.
Utah GOP Elects to Use Instant
Runoff Voting to Nominate Congressional
Candidates
March
2002
On February 2, 2002, the Utah Republican Party adopted bylaws to use instant runoff voting to
nominate candidates for US Congress at the May 11, 2002 state
convention.
The 3,500 delegates will vote on nominations for Utah’s 3
Congressional seats.
The
convention uses a 60% threshold for nomination, and if no candidate
receives 60% in the instant runoff tally, the top two candidates
square off in a primary election in June.
In addition, at least 4 counties -- Summit, Box Elder,
Cache and Sevier -- will have used instant runoff voting for
nominations at county conventions by May of this year.
This follows last year’s successful use of instant
runoff voting to elect state party officers in August 2001 and to
nominate a county commission at the Summit County Republican Party
convention in April 2000.
We believe the Summit County nomination was the first public
nomination using instant runoff voting by a major party in
decades.
The motivation for using instant runoff voting in
party conventions is simple. With multiple candidates,
under Robert’s Rules, there are essentially three options: election by plurality,
multiple balloting or instant runoff voting. Robert’s Rules frowns
on plurality voting because it can violate majority rule. Multiple balloting in a
large convention can take hours to conduct. This can lead to large voter
drop off and cause meetings to stretch until late at night. Instant runoff voting
combines the advantages of both: election by a majority or
higher threshold in a single election.
The use of instant runoff voting had particular value
in this year’s Congressional nominations. There are between 3 and 12
Republican candidates in the three races. Instant runoff voting
efficiently nominates a strong standard bearer or selects the two
top candidates to appear in a primary election. Without instant runoff
voting, the delegates who happen to have the endurance to stay
through the final rounds of balloting could decide such
nominations.
For more information about these
races, see a Salt
Lake Tribune article
along with a list
of candidates.
For more information about the
use of instant runoff voting in Utah, please contact Mike Ridgway,
one of the principal advocates for instant runoff voting in the Utah
Republican Party, by email or phone at
801-220-0166.
Results of the IRV nomination are
now available.
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