In a landmark June 24 election with instant runoff voting, Harriet Harman became Deputy Leader of the British Labour Party with a 50.4% majority of votes. She beat Alan Johnson, with 49.6%, after a series of instant runoffs in the six-candidate race.

Incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged to make Harman chair of the Labour Party. Harman, who in 2001 became Britain's first ever female Solictor General, has been a champion of women's issues and a bridge-builder between different wings of the Labour Party. Brown and top members of the Labour Party are showing interest in IRV to elect the House of Commons and proportional voting to elect the House of Lords.

Called the "alternative vote" in the United Kingdom, instant runoff voting is used by Labour's electoral college, which consists of Members of Parliament, Members of the European Parliament and representatives from organized labor.

[ More on international, public uses of IRV ]
[ BBC coverage ]
[ Guardian coverage ]
[ ePolitix.com on Brown's views on democracy ]
[ Round-by-round results from the Electoral Reform Society ]

The Illinois State Senate has joined the House in passing the National Popular Vote bill into law. The bill has now passed 11 legislative chambers across the country since it was first announced in February 2006.

Key to the bill's progress has been former FairVote general counsel Dan Johnson-Weinberger and enthusiastic bill sponsors such as Sen. Kirk W. Dillard (R) and Sen. Jacqueline Y. Collins (D).

Illinois, a classic spectator state, is the largest state to receive zero dollars spent in political advertising, and not a single campaign visit in 2004. In contrast, the National Popular Vote plan would make every vote equal and compel candidates to engage voters in every state.

[ More on NPV in Illinois ]
[ FairVote's report Presidential Inequality ]