MEMPHIS CHARTER COMMISSION

2008 Referendum No. 5:  Instant Runoff Voting

 

2008 Amendment No. 5, adopted by the City of Memphis Charter Commission on August 21, 2008, proposes the City of Memphis Charter be amended as follows:

Instant Runoff Voting.
(1) Instant Runoff Voting For City Elections.  Consistent with the mandates of federal and state law, and all applicable court decisions, the City of Memphis will use Instant Runoff Voting for city elections.

(2)  Instant Runoff Voting Defined.   Instant Runoff Voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference.  Any candidate receiving a majority of the first-preferences for that office wins the election.  If no such candidate exists, an instant runoff tabulation shall be conducted in rounds. In each round, each ballot shall count as a single vote for whichever non-eliminated candidate is ranked highest. After each round, the candidate with the fewest votes shall be eliminated, with the votes for that candidate redistributed to the remaining non-eliminated candidates based on the order of preferences indicated on each of the affected ballots.  If the redistribution of votes results in a candidate receiving a majority of the votes, that candidate is elected.  Otherwise, the candidate then having the fewest votes shall be eliminated, and the votes are redistributed as before, with the process of candidate elimination and vote redistribution continuing until one candidate has a majority of the votes counted for any candidate in that round.  The Election Commission shall adopt regulations consistent with the procedure above to facilitate implementation of instant runoff voting.

(3) Effective Date. This section shall go into effect prior to the next municipal election unless the Election Commission certifies that voting machine limitations make its implementation in time for that election unfeasible.

I, Roland McElrath, Director of City of Memphis
Division of Finance, hereby certify this Amendment
will result in an estimated cost savings of $250,000.00
to the City of Memphis on an annual basis