Lehigh Brown and White
New voting systems
hit By Matt Kapitanyan April 13, 2003
Many colleges across the country have begun to adopt
reforms for student elections that allow instant run-off
voting.
Schools recently adopting instant run-off voting
include Duke, Vassar and William and Mary.
Caltech, MIT,
Rice, Harvard and Princeton University are a few schools that have
used the system for years. The number now, however, is growing
rapidly, making its way even out of the campuses into local
governments.
This November, San Francisco will become the
first major U.S. city to use instant run-off voting for elections
and the reform has been introduced in 20 states this year.
To
ensure leaders elected are representative of the public���s will, many
student governments as well as local and state governments have a
precedent for a majority rule. However, this often leads to run-off
elections when one candidate does not receive 50 percent of the
votes. These run-offs often result in decreased turnout and
increased costs. An instant run-off voting system of voting singles
out the true majority candidate in one election.
Instead of
holding two separate elections, voters vote for their preference
among run-off choices. This way, if no candidate receives a clear
majority of first choices, the instant run-off takes place, ensuring
that the election will only need to take place once. The system
ensures that a majority of students support the victor of the
election.
���In our surveys students reported that they felt
better represented by instant run-off voting than by plurality and
some students who haven���t voted in past elections even said they
would vote in future elections if instant run-off voting were
implemented,��� said Georgia Kellogg, a prominent member of the Voting
System Task Force.
The Voting System Task Force was
responsible for evaluating the new system of voting. After analyzing
10 different voting methods, the Task Force then conducted mock
elections with their top four choices to scale student
reaction.
���The Voting System Task Force decided that instant
run-off voting was the best option available,��� said Max Harrington,
UCSD freshman senator and Task Force chair.
Lehigh has yet to
adopt the new measure. However, the heavy national push in both
campuses and cities alike is hard to ignore.
���I think we
should definitely adapt this new voting method,��� Kevin Loeb, ���06,
said. ���First off, I doubt half the student body comes out to vote in
the first place; I can���t imagine how few people come out for the
second vote. This new system seems to be much more
efficient.���
Several members of the Lehigh student senate and
class officers said they were not opposed to a change to instant
run-off voting.
���Run-off voting would be a great step toward
having a more efficient electoral system,��� Freshman Class
Vice-President Jordan Miller said. ���I would support the use of such
a program for future elections at Lehigh.���
More information
on instant run-off voting is available at
www.fairvote.org.
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