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 George Plumb
Published January 4th 2008 in Burlington Times-Argus
There is much important legislation that needs to be worked on when the Vermont Legislature reconvenes next week and one of the most important is a bill that supports more democratically how we can vote. The Instant Runoff Voting bill, S.108, will apply to the U.S. Congress and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch supports the use of IRV in his re-election bid. Passage of this bill, with the governor's support, will enable Vermonters to try out this system of voting and see how it works. It appears that IRV is simple for voters to use as Burlington used IRV in its last mayoral election flawlessly. Now it is time to allow the rest of us the opportunity to use IRV.
IRV assures majority rule rather than simply allowing the candidate with the highest vote total in a multi-candidate race to win. Under existing law, a "winner" might actually be the candidate the majority of the voters consider to be the WORST choice.
IRV is recommended over our current voting method in modern editions of Robert's Rules of Order because it can find a majority winner in a single election no matter how many candidates are running.
The secretary of state has reported there is no need to buy any new voting machines, or change the way ballots are counted locally to implement IRV, since any IRV tally would be done at regional centers after the election. The added cost for this is very small.
George Plumb
Washington
IRV assures majority rule rather than simply allowing the candidate with the highest vote total in a multi-candidate race to win. Under existing law, a "winner" might actually be the candidate the majority of the voters consider to be the WORST choice.
IRV is recommended over our current voting method in modern editions of Robert's Rules of Order because it can find a majority winner in a single election no matter how many candidates are running.
The secretary of state has reported there is no need to buy any new voting machines, or change the way ballots are counted locally to implement IRV, since any IRV tally would be done at regional centers after the election. The added cost for this is very small.
George Plumb
Washington
