By Catherine A. Rader
Published March 29th 2007 in The Barre Times / Montpeiler Argus
The Vermont Senate is currently considering using IRV for Vermont's U.S. House race in 2008. As proposed, the IRV system before the Legislature gives voters the option to rank candidates in order of choice: first, second, third, etc. If a candidate wins a majority of first choices, the election is over. If not, the top two candidates advance to an instant runoff election, based on the other choices on the ballots cast for the candidates who were eliminated. This guarantees the election of the candidate who gets the majority of the votes. Under this system, the instant runoff count would only be necessary if there were no immediate winner � and it would take less than one day to do, at a cost of perhaps $12,000. That's a small price to pay for majority rule.
Voters of all educational backgrounds have been using IRV ballots effectively. In Burlington's first IRV election for mayor in 2006, 99.9 percent of ballots were valid. Landslide majorities found the system easy and supported its implementation statewide.
Majority voting is the aim of IRV, without the time, expense, and drop-off in participation inherent in a traditional runoff. Rutland's recent mayoral race was won with 33 percent of the vote. That means that 67 percent of the voters voted for someone else. Without IRV, we will never know whether the mayor did indeed have majority support or if the majority of voters preferred another candidate.
These results help explain why IRV has averaged 66 percent support in the last eight cities which voted on it. It's high time for majority voting in Vermont.
Catherine A. Rader
President, League of Women Voters of Vermont
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.