NY Times Gives National Popular Vote Effort a Boost

Uses FairVote's research to make the case

The New York Times March 14th editorial gave an enthusiastic thumbs up to the National Popular Vote (NPV) effort. As a major partner in NPV, FairVote is proud to have its research used to build the case for a national popular vote for the president. 

The Timeswrites: "Candidates have no incentive to campaign in, or address the concerns of, states that reliably vote for a particular party. In recent years, the battleground in presidential elections has shrunk drastically. In 1960, 24 states, with 327 electoral votes, were battleground states, according to estimates by National Popular Vote, the bipartisan coalition making the new proposal. In 2004, only 13 states, with 159 electoral votes, were. As a result, campaigns and national priorities are stacked in favor of a few strategic states. Ethanol fuel, a pet issue of Iowa farmers, is discussed a lot. But issues of equal concern to states like Alabama, California, New York and Indiana are not."

[ Read The New York Times editorial ]
[ Read the Chicago Sun-Times endorsing editorial ]
[ See FairVote's Presidential Election Inequality ]

Burlington Holds "Flawless" IRV Election

On Tuesday March 7, Burlington, VT became the first city in the U.S. in over 30 years to elect its mayor using instant runoff voting (IRV) in what Vermont media termed a "flawless" election.  In addition, FairVote's Caleb Kleppner has written a report on the Burlington election, the links can be found below.

After the first round of counting, no candidate garnered the required majority to win outright. Progressive candidate Bob Kiss received 39% of first choices, Democrat Hinda Miller 31%, and Republican Kevin Curley 26%. At this point an instant runoff kicked in. Curley and two other independent candidates were eliminated and their supporters' second choices counted. This gave Kiss enough votes to cross the majority threshold and win the race.

Voters found the system easy to use and understand, and almost no trouble with the balloting was reported. In fact, out of every 1,000 voters in the mayoral race, 999 cast a valid ballot. The Progressive Party has been active in Vermont politics for decades, and Burlington has elected several Progressive mayors in the past under the previous plurality system.

[ Read "IRV deemed a success" in the Burlington Free Press ]
[ Read an AP story on the election ]
[ More on IRV in Vermont ]
[ Read Caleb Kleppner's Report on Burlington's Election (.pdf/396 Kb) ]
[ Read Caleb Kleppner's Election Analysis (.xls/3.05 Mb) ]