Proponents debate IRV costBy Adriel Hampton
Published June 13th 2003 in San Francisco Examiner
An elections reform group that supported the winning instant runoff ballot measure last March has released an analysis criticizing the $2.3 million plan to hand count ballots after the November election.
The Elections Department has a plan to spend more than three weeks and pay 501 temporary workers $25 an hour to hand tabulate ballots under a new system that allows voters to rank their top three choices for office.
But analysts from The Center for Voting and Democracy say the bill is highly inflated by paying workers for a full three weeks even when many of them will be needed only for a few days.
"Correcting the inconsistencies significantly reduces the cost and time needed," the Center's Steve Hill said.
The biggest difference comes in worker pay, where Center staff suggest an hourly $15 would be plenty for the temporary staff. That brings the staff cost down to less than $700,000.
Elections Chief John Arntz told The Examiner that his staffing plan doesn't factor in materials and supplies, or rent for a counting space. The department has cut $300,000 out of its plan by consolidating some activities, but it will still take until the end of November to have a result, he said.
"It's not something I see working," he said of the Center's analysis.
In another development, San Francisco's elections system vendor plans to demonstrate a electronic system for a three-choice election to the Secretary of State on June 26, possibly making the hand-count debate moot.
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.