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Missoulian
Advocate drops drive
for 'instant runoff' initiative
May 8, 2002 The sponsor of a proposed initiative to create
"instant runoff" elections in Montana has withdrawn the measure, the
secretary of state's office said Monday. In a letter to Secretary
of State Bob Brown, Matthew Singer of Billings said he wanted "to
prevent ballot confusion resulting from an overabundance of ballot
issues" for the 2002 election, a press release from Brown's office
said. Five measures have qualified for the 2002 ballot, and another
eight are pending. One was rejected by the attorney general and
three, including Singer's, have been withdrawn. Singer's proposal
would have asked voters to rank several choices when voting for
state or federal offices with more than three candidates, rather
than simply voting for one candidate. If no candidate received more
than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, the candidate with the
fewest first-choice votes would be dropped. Votes from voters who
picked the dropped candidate as their first choice would then go to
the voters' second-choice candidates, and the process would continue
until one candidate had more than 50 percent support. Similar
proposals are being considered in other states. |
