By Lou Traxel
Published May 3rd 2001 in Kansas City Star
In the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election fiasco, prominent
politicians everywhere trumpeted their latest scheme for restoring
democracy to this country.
While most of these suggestions are a step in the right direction,
they fail to address the fundamental problem with our nation's voting
system -- that it does not ensure majority rule.
Under our present voting system, the winner is determined as much by
the arbitrary political distribution of candidates as it
is by the popularity of the candidate with the most votes.
Candidates who represent a majority viewpoint will often split the
vote, allowing someone representing a minority viewpoint to win.
Fortunately, a voting method does eliminate these problems.
Instant runoff voting permits voters to rank the candidates in order
of preference. The votes are initially tabulated by counting only the
voter's first choices. If one candidate receives a majority, then he
or she is declared the winner. If no one receives a majority, the
candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and votes cast for that
candidate are transferred to the voters' second choice. The process
is repeated until one candidate emerges with a majority.
Under this instant system, qualified individuals would no longer be
afraid to run for office for fear of hurting the chances of other
candidates, resulting in a more open debate where issues affecting
average people could no longer be ignored by the major parties.
Minor-party candidates would find it easier to qualify for public
campaign funding, thus reducing the power of private cash to
influence politics. Parties would need to form coalitions to reach a
majority level of support, and negative campaigning would be reduced.
Piecemeal reforms are not what our archaic electoral system needs.
Voters should not be punished with a government that does not
represent their will simply because of individuals exercising their
right to run for public office.
The voters have been punished enough. Instant runoff voting is an
idea whose time has come.