On March 16th, Former Vermont Governor and Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean continued his support for instant runoff voting on Vermont Radio's Mark Johnson Show. Commenting on Burlington's recent IRV election, Dean said "I think the best and most democratic way to use to elect people in multiparty elections is instant runoff voting." Dean also supported the system when it was first used in Burlington in 2006.
Citizens of Burlington, Vermont went to the polls on Tuesday, March 3rd to vote for the second time in an election using instant runoff voting. At 8:25 PM, the city declared that incumbent Mayor Bob Kiss had won reelection in the third and final round of counting, narrowly edging out challenger Kurt Wright, 51.5% to 48.5%. The race was unique in that it had four candidates that had a legitimate shot at winning: Progressive Kiss, Republican Wright, Democrat Andy Montroll, and independent Dan Smith. In most other American cities, there would be fear of "spoiler" candidates, but IRV allowed all four candidates to run without having to worry about being labeled "spoilers."
On April 4, Vermont governor Jim Douglas chose to veto legislation to re-establish majority elections for Congress in his state through instant runoff voting. Vermont would have been the first state to enact IRV for Congress; legislative leaders affirmed their commitment to the bill, and it is sure to move in the state again. FairVote has worked hard to support this legislation, which likely generated more than 600 phone calls to the governor from Vermonters.
Instant runoff is the winnerBy Robin Chesnut-Tangerman
Published March 28th 2006 in Rutland Herald
Sandy Baird's recent letter condemning instant runoff voting (IRV) as
diminishing democracy doesn't make sense to me. Baird admits that IRV
worked smoothly in Burlington, that it resolves the "spoiler" issues of
third party candidates, that with IRV people can vote for their
favorite candidate instead of voting against their least favorite, and
that Burlington mayoral winner, Bob Kiss, would have won with or
without IRV. This is failure? I wish all our elections could fail this
well.
No, Bob Kiss' victory aside, I think the clear winner in Burlington was IRV, which I hope paves the way for the rest of the state to follow.
ROBIN CHESNUT-TANGERMAN
Middletown Springs
No, Bob Kiss' victory aside, I think the clear winner in Burlington was IRV, which I hope paves the way for the rest of the state to follow.
ROBIN CHESNUT-TANGERMAN
Middletown Springs
