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.By Andy Potter
Published March 7th 2006 in WCAX TV News
Following Burlington's first-ever Vermont election conducted by Instant Runoff Voting, supporters want to take the voting system statewide. And so this election was watched closely.
Its not clear if IRV really made any difference in the outcome. The plurality winner, Progressive Bob Kiss, fell just short of the 40% threshold required by the old system to avoid a runoff. Under IRV, an elimination process coupled with the allocation of voters' second choices, boosted Kiss to the 50% mark and victory.
It took a while to load the results from each polling place into a central computer. But once that was done, the IRV process took mere seconds. The city's elections director, Jo LaMarche, was relieved that the system worked without any major problems.
"It worked in -- what? Two rounds, so it was great," she said.
Progressives initiated a push for IRV by winning approval of the voting system at last year's Burlington city elections. Still, the Bob Kiss victory was a cliff hanger for them. Progressive party strategist John Franco said, "My big fear was the headline tomorrow was gong to be, Progressives Fall on Their Own Sword, that Bob would lead in the first round and lose the IRV. That was our nightmare."
Supporters of instant runoff voting want to see it enacted statewide, although Republicans tend to see it as an advantage to the left. But Rep. Kurt Wright (R-Burlington) said it bears examination. "I think the system we have is working fine, but let's take a breather, step back and look at this thing," he said. "We'll have to analyze how this whole thing worked."
Any move to take instant runoff voting statewide will run into political resistance. Governor Jim Douglas already has said he would veto it if it reached his desk. Certainly it will be debated and analyzed.
Did IRV actually affect the outcome of the election? We'll never know. Under the old system, Burlington would have held a special runoff election between the top vote-getters, Bob Kiss and Hinda Miller.
