The Cary Town Council has given a thumbs up for Cary to be a pilot community for the Wake County Board of Elections Instant Runoff Voting Method for its municipal elections in November.

The decision came at Thursday night�s council meeting where Cherie Poucher, director of the Wake County Board of Elections, presented her request to council.

�The instant runoff voting is very important to the Board of Elections,� Poucher said.

How does the method work? Here�s the information from a powerpoint presentation presented to council Thursday.

Voters make first-choice selections for an office just as they currently do, but also select up to two alternate choices.

Each voter�s first choice is tallied. A candidate who gets a majority of first choices is the winner.

If there is no majority winner, there is a runoff between the top two finishers, but it doesn�t call for voters to come back to the polls.

In the instant runoff the top two vote-getters are valued this way:

If a person�s first candidate is in the runoff, their vote goes to that candidate. If the voter�s first candidate has lost, their vote counts for their second choice or third choice depending on which one is in the runoff.

These votes are added to the first-round vote totals of the top two vote-getters. The runoff candidate with the majority of votes wins.

Though council eventually decided to take part in the instant-runoff voting, an hour of debate took place before the decision.

Mayor Ernie McAlister wanted to have more public input before a decision was made about changing the way elections are held in Cary.

The mayor supported a motion calling for a public hearing and a vote on the matter at the council�s next meeting June 14.

That motion failed. Council member Julie Robison who wanted to get on board with the pilot program, since she felt the instant-runoff voting would help cut down on campaign costs.

�The instant-runoff voting permits the ordinary citizen to run for office,� Robinson said.

The motion to become a pilot community passed 4-3, with McAlister and council members Jack Smith and Jennifer Robinson dissenting.

Also Thursday, the first public hearing was held on the council�s $387 million budget for 2008.

Several people � many representing nonprofit groups � asked the town to reconsider their funding amount for the year.

One such group was Christian Community in Action, which runs the Dorcas Thrift Shop.

The proposed budget has the group slated to receive $5,000, but the group wouldn�t mind receiving a little bit more.

�We don�t expect our revenue to go up at the Dorcas Thrift Shop this year,� said Howard Manning with Dorcas, who also noted that Christian Community in Action did not want to ease off on its services.

The rest of the concerns brought forth included the president of the Special Olympics of North Carolina thanking the town for its $2,000 grant, and resident Brent Miller telling council that the town needs to have have elementary school resource officers.

The next budget work session will be on June 5 at 4:30 p.m. in room 10035 in Town Hall.

The next public hearing will be at the June 14 council meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Council Chambers in Town Hall.

Contact Beth Hatcher at 460-2608 or [email protected]