Why Support City Question 2?

On November 6th, Sarasota will vote on city measure 2 to replace our "delayed", two-election runoffs with instant runoff voting (IRV). Backed by the League of Women Voters, city question 2 is a common-sense reform that will save taxpayers money, protect the rights of military voters, reduce money in politics and reduce overly negative campaigns. Traditional citywide runoffs pose several problems that could be solved by IRV:

1. Instant Runoff Voting Saves Taxpayer Money.
It costs $37,000 to have a traditional runoff election. What else could the city do with $37,000?

2. Traditional runoffs pose a great problem for overseas members of the armed forces.
Instant Runoff Voting ensures overseas and military voters' ballots are counted. It's nearly impossible to determine the candidates in such a runoff, print absentee ballots and mail them to overseas voters fast enough for ballots to be returned in time to count them in the runoff. (That's why overseas voters use IRV ballots for federal and state elections with runoffs in Arkansas, Louisiana and South Carolina!)

3. One-on-one races in traditional runoffs usually get nasty.
Instant Runoff Voting reduces negative campaigning. Because candidates want the second choices of their opponents, they are less likely to attack their opponents with negative campaigning. Instead, IRV promotes more focus on platforms and real issues.

4. Reduces campaign spending.
In runoffs, candidates have to fundraise for a second election one month later, owing more favors to special interest groups.

To learn more about instant runoff voting, visit:

• instantrunoff.com
• Coalition for Instant Runoff Voting
• FairVote