Despite the resounding success of this week’s voter turnout in the
historic election, problems persisted across the nation: long lines,
confusing ballots, complicated voter registration laws, hackable
electronic voting machines, and voter roll purges, often leave voters
discouraged. But, one extremely successful tactic to ease problems was
the widespread use of early voting, which helped millions of Americans
to beat the long lines, and relieve some of the glut on election day.
Additionally, among the 150 or so ballot measures around the country
were a few measures around instant run-off voting, and other aspect of
voting rights, that, Americans voted in favor of.
GUEST: Rob Richie is the executive director of FairVote, a nonpartisan, nonprofit election reform and voting rights organization
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.