By Kevin Cross
Published November 15th 2006 in The Coloradoan
Instant run-off voting," or IRV, is an idea whose time has come. Under IRV, voters rank their top choices for political office instead of voting for a single candidate. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, then the candidate receiving the fewest votes is eliminated. The second choices of those who voted for that candidate are distributed among the remaining candidates. This process continues until one candidate attains more than 50% of the vote.
If IRV had been in place this year, Democrat Angie Paccione would probably be our congresswoman, not Marilyn Musgrave. Eric Eidsness voters would have been more likely to list Paccione as their second choice than Musgrave. Steve Mazurana of the University of Northern Colorado estimates that Eidsness "took away" two votes from Paccione for every vote he "took away" from Musgrave. The election was close enough that IRV would have probably provided Paccione with enough votes to win. Of course, third party candidates can "spoil" elections for Republican candidates, as well.
Under IRV, there would be no such thing as a "spoiler" candidate. IRV might also make it possible for third party candidates to occasionally be successful in elections, and would help get us beyond the mudslinging and sterile arguments that often characterize races between two major party candidates.
Ken Gordon, Colorado Senate majority leader, has promised to support IRV in the upcoming session of the general assembly. If the next election in Colorado features a "spoiler" candidate, our legislators will deserve the blame.
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.