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The Oregonian Web Site
http://www.oregonlive.com/public_commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/public_commentary/oregonian/patt0507.frame
"It's easy being
Green"
Xander Patterson
May 7, 2001
It seems David Sarasohn
thinks Ralph Nader and the Greens are heretics who should be burned
at the stake for daring to participate in our electoral democracy
("For Bush, Nader can't do enough," April 25).
He has a point. Under our current
first-by-the-post plurality voting system, Greens are often
relegated to the role of "spoiler." The same is true for all "third"
parties. Libertarians have spoiled more congressional races for
Republicans than Greens have for Democrats. But it is not minor
parties who are spoiling the system. It's the system itself that is
spoiled.
Dimpled chads are the least of our
problems. Worse is our plurality voting system's insane logic, by
which a vote for Nader is transformed into a vote for Bush, or a
vote for Perot into a vote for Clinton. Thus, voters concoct wild
schemes like trading a vote in a safe state for a vote in a
contested one. Or they wait until the last minute to see if it is
safe to vote their conscience. Ultimately, many feel tortured into
voting for a lesser of two evils they do not, in their hearts,
support.
That's not what democracy looks
like.
Fortunately, there is a simple
electoral reform that will solve the spoiler issue and restore a
modicum of sanity to our system. It's called Instant Runoff Voting
(IRV).
Under IRV, voters rank the
candidates on the ballot in order of preference rather than choose
just one. If no candidate receives a majority of first choice votes,
a runoff election is held "instantly," without the need (and
expense) of another election, by eliminating the candidate with the
least votes and transferring his or her votes to the next choice
marked on each ballot. These runoffs continue until a candidate
obtains a clear majority.
The benefits of IRV are clear: No
spoilers, no wasted votes, every winner get a majority and a mandate
-- unlike our last two presidents. IRV benefits all major and minor
parties across the political spectrum. Above all, it benefits the
voters.
IRV is not some new, untested idea.
In 1908, our forebears passed an initiative to amend Oregon's
constitution to explicitly permit IRV. Australia has been using IRV
for 75 years, Ireland for 50, and London just adopted it a couple of
years ago. The American Association of Political Scientists uses it
to elect their officers. Eugene's City Council just came out in
support of IRV. Fair Vote Oregon (Favor ) has filed an initiative to
finally implement IRV in all Oregon elections.
Unlike Sarasohn, most Americans want
more choices than just the Republicans and Democrats. They want a
debate with a wider range of views than just how big a tax cut to
give the rich and whether we should gut the Kyoto Global Warming
Treaty as Clinton did, or simply withdraw from it. We want the
option of voting for a candidate who questions whether we should
surrender our jobs, our environment and our national sovereignty to
corporate managed global trade through the WTO and FTAA. We won't
get that choice until our electoral process allows new parties to
compete fairly in a free market of political
ideas.
The fact is the Pacific Green Party
is not going away. Contrary to what Sarasohn may think, the last
election was a tremendous success for the Greens. We are the fastest
growing party in Oregon, the United States, and indeed the entire
world. Instead of grousing about how Greens are "spoiling" the
democratic process, Sarasohn and all Oregonians -- Democrats,
Republicans and others -- should join us in fixing it.
Xander
Patterson is co-chair, Pacific Green Party
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