City Council To Consider 'Instant' Runoff Voting
Published October 17th 2005 in kfmb website
This November's local runoff election could be the city's last. A council committee presented a proposal Monday for "instant" runoff voting.

The proposal would allow voters to list candidates by rank of preference – eliminating the need for expensive runoff elections.

According to committee members, it would be great for San Diego voters.

"We would have fewer wasted votes …we'd be able to accommodate any number of write-in candidates," San Diego Libertarian Party Chair Edward Teyssier said. "We would have the winner selected by the majority in one election."

The city council will now begin studying the idea.

The instant runoff system is already being used in San Francisco.
IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers.  Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections;  the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

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