Brattleboro Reformer
By Eesha Williams January, 2003
In March 2002, Brattleboro, Guilford, Halifax,
Jamaica, Marlboro, Newfane, Vernon, Wardsboro, and 47 other Vermont
towns formally called on the state Legislature to enact a new system
of voting. The system, known as instant runoff voting, requires that
a winning candidate receive a majority of votes, rather than a
plurality, as occurred in races for the state���s two top jobs in
November. The Legislature took no action following the Town Meeting
Day vote. But, supporters of instant runoff voting say they have
high hopes for enactment of a change during the legislative session
that starts Wednesday. They say many Vermont voters are unhappy with
a system that allowed Republican Brian Dubie to be elected
lieutenant governor with 41 percent of the vote, while Democrat
Peter Shumlin and Progressive Anthony Pollina -- who espoused
similar views on most major issues -- together received 56 percent
of the vote. ���If it had been Dubie against either Shumlin or
Pollina, it���s fair to say Dubie would have lost, ��� said Rep.
Virginia Milkey, D-Brattleboro. Gov.-elect James Douglas ���does not
support��� a change in the voting laws, said spokesman Jason Gibbs on
Friday. ���He has very serious reservations about the
constitutionality of instant runoff voting and believes there is too
much room for administrative and ballot-box confusion,��� Gibbs said.
Gibbs declined to say whether Douglas would veto legislation if it
were passed by the Legislature. Windham county���s legislative
contingent is mostly behind instant runoff voting, according to
interviews this week. ���Instant runoff voting isn���t perfect, but I
certainly prefer it to the current system,��� said Sen.-elect Rod
Gander, D-Windham. ���I will vote for it.��� Sen.-elect Jeanette White,
D-Windham, said she hadn���t made up her mind about the issue and
wanted to study it further. Rep.-elect Sarah Edwards, P-Brattleboro,
said: ���I will definitely vote for IRV. It���s critically important
because it will really open up the political system.��� Milkey said
she would support the change. Rep. Daryl Pillsbury, I-Brattleboro,
said he would vote for instant runoff voting so Vermonters could
���vote based on their hopes, not their fears.��� ���I voted for Nader in
2000 and helped elect Bush,��� he said. ���In 2002, I voted for Pollina
and helped elect Dubie. I���m tired of it we need instant runoff
voting.��� Rep. David Deen, D-Westminster, said he was undecided.
���This system has worked for a couple hundred years,��� he said.
���Someone would have to convince me to change it.��� Rep.-elect Richard
Marek, D-Newfane, said he spoke in favor of instant runoff voting at
Newfane town meeting last year, and would vote for it this year in
the House. ���The governor���s opposition is a major roadblock, but
we���ll have to see if he can���t be persuaded,��� Marek said. Rep. Steve
Darrow, D-Dummerston, said he would vote for the change. ���It would
more accurately reflect the will of the voters,��� he said. Rep.
Michael Obuchowski, D-Rockingham, said he would support it, but
would also fight for funding for a public education campaign about
the new system, to try to prevent voters from possibly being scared
away from the polls. Rep. Carolyn Partridge, D-Windham, said she
would vote for instant runoff voting, but would also consider
���regular��� runoff elections as an alternative. Rep. Robert Rusten,
D-Halifax, said he supported the concept but wanted to see specific
legislation before committing to vote for it. Efforts to contact
Reps. Patricia O���Donnell, R-Vernon, Richard Hube, R-Londonderry, and
Rep.-elect Philip Bartlett, R-Dover, were unsuccessful on Thursday
and Friday. Under instant runoff voting, voters mark on their
ballots a first, second, and third choice of candidates, instead of
just a first choice. If more than 50 percent of voters choose a
single candidate as their first choice, that candidate wins. But if
no candidate wins the majority of first-choice votes -- as happened
in November with Douglas and Dubie -- vote counters automatically
eliminate the lowest vote-getter and then do a recount to determine
which candidate wins election by a majority. Ireland uses instant
runoff voting to elect its president, and Australia uses it to elect
its House of Representatives. Cambridge, Mass., uses instant runoff
to elect its city council, and San Francisco uses it to elect its
mayor. Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz endorsed the
change in a speech at a meeting of the National Association of
Secretaries of State in Rhode Island in July 2002. Last year, the
League of Women Voters, the Vermont AFL-CIO, USA Today, the
Burlington Free Press, and the Rutland Herald endorsed instant
runoff voting. In December 2002, Utah Attorney General Mark
Shurtleff, a Republican, endorsed the procedure for state elections,
saying, under the current system, ���whenever there are more than two
candidates in a race, there is a risk that the majority of voters
will split among two or more appealing candidates, leaving a
candidate with only narrow support as the top vote-getter.��� ���The
Republican Party of Utah believes in majority rule. That���s why we
adopted IRV for party elections and U.S. congressional nominations.���
Paul Burns, director of the Vermont Public Interest Group, said
lobbying for instant runoff voting would be a top priority for his
group this year. |