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Scott County
Virginia Star
Legislator's
proposal: Vote for a first choice - and a second
By
Ron Capshaw
January 20, 2003
A
state legislator wants to remove any doubt over who has the majority
support of voters when more than two candidates are on the
ballot.
Under Delegate William Barlow's unusual solution, voters would
get to mark
not only their first choice but also a second choice on
Election Day. If no
one gets more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes,
election officials
then would look at the second-choice votes -- thus creating
what Barlow calls
an "instant runoff."
"Jesse Ventura won the governorship by getting only 1 out of 3
votes," he
said. That's not a good way to vote."
In 1998, Ventura, running as an independent, won the
Minnesota governor's
race with 37 percent of the vote. The Republican candidate got
35 percent and
the Democratic nominee 28 percent. Or, Barlow said, consider
the 2000
presidential race.
Nationwide, Republican George W. Bush received 48 percent of
the vote, and
Democrat Al Gore 48.3 percent. Most of the remaining votes went
to Ralph
Nader of the Green Party. In several states, because of Nader,
no one got
more than half of the popular vote.
Barlow, a Democrat from Smithfield, believes his instant-runoff
system will
not only provide a conclusive winner quickly but also restore
voter interest
in the process. "People lose interest when there is a runoff,"
he said.
"Runoffs are expensive and take 10 days. With my bill people
can vote for a
first and second choice. "If, for instance, I had been a Nader
voter in the
last presidential election, I could have voted for Nader first
and Gore
second. A clear victory might not have been in doubt. With my
bill, someone
can emerge with 51 percent of the vote."
If the General Assembly approves his proposal, Virginia would
become
one of the first states to adopt an instant-runoff system,
Barlow said."Some
other countries are already doing this." If the bill doesn't
pass this year,
it will eventually, Barlow said. "Instant runoff is going to
happen soon." He
also is sponsoring a bill to revamp the redistricting
process.
Every 10 years, after the census, the General Assembly redraws
legislative
districts. Typically, whichever party is in control tries to
draws the lines
to its political advantage. "It's partisan, whether its
Democrats doing it or
Republicans," Barlow said.
"Citizens are getting increasingly unhappy with this
process." His solution:
Have an independent, nonpartisan commission redraw the
political maps. "The
main questions are, who will appoint the commission members and
then who will
these members appoint?"
Barlow offers his answer to those questions with a
proposed constitutional
amendment creating the Virginia Redistricting Commission. The
commission
would have 11 members -- one from each of Virginia's
congressional districts.
The panel would be appointed by the most recently retired chief
justice of
the Virginia Supreme Court.
The former justice, in turn, would select other retired
judges as commission
members. "They retired, so they aren't beholden to the governor
or the
Assembly or anyone," Barlow said. "They would have to abide by
the law,
though."
The commission members would be selected on the basis of
geography, integrity
and race, although race should not be a
predominant factor, Barlow said.
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