Letter: Improve elections with rank system

By Paul Fidalgo
Published July 5th 2007 in New York Newsday
In "Independents don't change system" [Opinion, June 25], Joshua Spivak warns that a third-party presidential candidacy's best hope is to play the spoiler, serving to elect a president who might otherwise have lost had he or she not thrown a hat in the ring. While this is usually the case, the fault lies not with the candidate, but with the system in which he or she runs.

As things are now, it takes a plurality of votes - not a true majority - to rake in a state's electoral votes. This creates a situation where even a candidate who only garners low numbers, such as Ralph Nader did in 2000, can spoil an election. If voters had a chance to rank their choices, however, the spoiler problem would be virtually eliminated.

In instant runoff voting (or IRV), voters can rank candidates in order of preference: 1, 2, 3, and so on. If no candidate wins a majority of first choices, the lowest-earning candidate is eliminated, and those votes are allocated to whomever their supporters ranked as their second choices. This way, supporters of third-party candidates need not worry about "wasting" their votes or helping a spoiler. Instead, they can rank their favorite candidate as their first choice and still have their voices heard in the final showdown if their first choice goes down.

In the current winner-take-all plurality system, independents can indeed wreak havoc on an election, but with IRV in place, people can vote their consciences without fear of spoiling anything for anyone.

Paul Fidalgo Editor's note: The writer is communications director for FairVote - The Center for Voting and Democracy. Takoma Park, Md.
IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers.  Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections;  the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

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