Adopt instant runoff voting

By Hannah Clapsadle
Published June 11th 2008 in Times-Standard - Eureka, CA

Humboldt County would be wise to adopt instant runoff voting. If we had this voting mechanism in place, we wouldn't be facing the runoff in the District 2 supervisor race.

Municipalities that currently use IRV include Burlington, Vt., Cambridge, Mass., Cary, N.C., and San Francisco among others. Los Angeles is considering putting a measure on their November ballot that would put it in place. IRV is being championed by the Chamber of Commerce in LA. It's not a right-left issue, it just makes the democratic process that more democratic, cooperative and less costly.

Instant runoff voting is a voting system used for single-winner elections in which voters rank candidates in order of preference using one ballot. No further voting rounds are required. If no candidate receives a majority of first choices, the candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated, and the votes cast for that candidate are redistributed to the remaining candidates according to the voters' indicated preference.

Imagine, right now we would be congratulating one of the candidates instead of waiting until November!

Hannah Clapsadle

Eureka
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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