Canadian Referendum Demonstrates Sweeping Mandate for Choice Voting

On Tuesday, May 17, the Canadian province of British Columbia held parliamentary elections and a referendum on whether to replace its antiquated plurality voting system with choice voting.

With record voter turnout of more than 1.6 million, voters overwhelmingly supported proportional voting. Although the reform initiative fell just short of the required 60% threshold, the campaign garnered an unambiguous yes-vote of 57.4%. It also won a majority of the votes cast in a remarkable 97% of districts from all over the province, with broad support in both rural and urban districts.

This near-perfect sweep occurred despite the limited resources of the reform initiative and strong opposition from the political status quo.

 [More on the British Columbia election here].

Instant Runoff Legislation Easily Passes North Carolina State House

North Carolina counties would use instant runoff voting (IRV) in local elections in 2005-2006 in a pilot project introduced by Rep. Paul Luebke. On May 18 the bill received bipartisan approval in the North Carolina house by a vote of 79-32. Under Rep. Luebke’s proposal, the State Board of Elections would work with up to ten counties interested in participating in the project.  Much of the initiative for improving North Carolina’s runoffs came from problems in the state’s 2004 elections, which had only 3% voter turnout in a statewide runoff that cost more than $3 million of taxpayer funds. North Carolina legislators recognized that IRV could increase voter turnout, reduce the costs of elections, and ensure more broadly supported winners. The bill now heads to the state senate.

[More about the North Carolina IRV bill].