By Bob Bernick Jr
Published April 16th 2004 in Deseret Morning News
In three weeks 3,500 state Republican Party delegates will gather in
the South Towne Center in Sandy to hear speeches and vote on the nine
GOP candidates for governor this year.
Second and 3rd District delegates will also vote for multiple candidates in those races, too.
For the second time, state GOP officials will be using a multiple-vote system called a preferential ballot.
Each delegate will get a ballot listing all the candidates. And a delegate will put one name as a first preference, another as second and so on down the ballot. The ballot is then scanned into a computer, and different rounds of voting take place.
In the first round, the last-place finisher is dropped off, and his name isn't counted again. So if you were placed second on that ballot, you would now get another first-place vote.
The second round is counted and so on. If in any round, one candidate gets 60 percent of the delegate vote, then he or she is the party's nominee, avoiding a primary.
Most believe in the governor's race, crowded with a number of good candidates, that won't happen.
In the final round of voting, then, the third-place person will be dropped off and the top two vote-getters will go to the June 22 primary.
State Republicans used preferential voting for the first time in 2002
convention. And most people liked it.
Under the old multiple ballot approach (still used by Democrats), delegates had to cast a new ballot in each round. That took a lot of time at the one-day conventions, which usually start at 9 a.m. and finish well into the afternoon.
And in 2002 there were 12 GOP candidates in the 2nd Congressional District. So it would have taken a dozen separate ballots to whittle down the field. It could have taken hours, and no doubt a number of delegates would have gotten sick of waiting around between ballots, counting and announcements, and left.
In some large-candidate fields in past conventions, it was a battle of attrition.
In 1996, Merrill Cook barely survived several rounds of balloting in the 2nd District. He made it into the primary by something like 16 votes, won the primary and won a seat in Congress. If 16 staunch Cook delegates had gone home early, he would have been eliminated.
The one-ballot preferential voting does away with multiple ballot delays.
Theoretically, state GOP leaders could run all the ballots through the computer, make the per-round calculations, and walk out and announce the two winners. In the past, the leaders have walked to the podium and announced each round. More reality TV tension and anticipation that way, I suppose.
In any case, preferential balloting is changing how candidates in big races, with a lot of challengers, campaign, several campaign managers tell me.
"It leads to a kindlier, gentler campaigning," said one manager. "That's because it's important that you are No. 2 on a ballot, because the guy listed as No. 1 could be eliminated before you and you then pick up his vote" in subsequent rounds of balloting, he said.
One example: Former U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen is showing well in several southern Utah counties, some campaign insiders say. Hansen represented the area for years in his 1st Congressional District, stood up to federal government public land bureaucrats, etc.
"In some of those southern counties, my guy is satisfied being second on the ballot to Hansen," says one manager. This guy's camp assumes Hansen will drop out of the counting at some point, and so a second place on that ballot will become a first place vote. (Hansen, of course, believes he won't be eliminated in early rounds of ballot counting but will finish first or second.)
Accordingly, in those strong Hansen counties it would be unwise to bash Hansen - for you could anger strong Hansen delegates who then would place the candidate doing the bashing well down on his or her preferential picks.
"In some cases, you need to be first on the ballot. Because the guy competing with you for first is a guy you may end up in a primary with - he's not going to be dropped out in early rounds of voting. But in some other cases, you're glad to be second, maybe even third, on someone's ballot. You know the one or two guys ahead of you won't make the final round - and you are going to get a first place vote when they drop off."
So, in a preferential voting convention you talk about yourself, how you can thump that Democrat in the final election, and so on. You stay positive.
You save any negative campaigning for the primary.
There it's one-vote takes all. And you can bloody a fellow Republican as much as you think the public can take it.
Second and 3rd District delegates will also vote for multiple candidates in those races, too.
For the second time, state GOP officials will be using a multiple-vote system called a preferential ballot.
Each delegate will get a ballot listing all the candidates. And a delegate will put one name as a first preference, another as second and so on down the ballot. The ballot is then scanned into a computer, and different rounds of voting take place.
In the first round, the last-place finisher is dropped off, and his name isn't counted again. So if you were placed second on that ballot, you would now get another first-place vote.
The second round is counted and so on. If in any round, one candidate gets 60 percent of the delegate vote, then he or she is the party's nominee, avoiding a primary.
Most believe in the governor's race, crowded with a number of good candidates, that won't happen.
In the final round of voting, then, the third-place person will be dropped off and the top two vote-getters will go to the June 22 primary.
State Republicans used preferential voting for the first time in 2002
convention. And most people liked it.
Under the old multiple ballot approach (still used by Democrats), delegates had to cast a new ballot in each round. That took a lot of time at the one-day conventions, which usually start at 9 a.m. and finish well into the afternoon.
And in 2002 there were 12 GOP candidates in the 2nd Congressional District. So it would have taken a dozen separate ballots to whittle down the field. It could have taken hours, and no doubt a number of delegates would have gotten sick of waiting around between ballots, counting and announcements, and left.
In some large-candidate fields in past conventions, it was a battle of attrition.
In 1996, Merrill Cook barely survived several rounds of balloting in the 2nd District. He made it into the primary by something like 16 votes, won the primary and won a seat in Congress. If 16 staunch Cook delegates had gone home early, he would have been eliminated.
The one-ballot preferential voting does away with multiple ballot delays.
Theoretically, state GOP leaders could run all the ballots through the computer, make the per-round calculations, and walk out and announce the two winners. In the past, the leaders have walked to the podium and announced each round. More reality TV tension and anticipation that way, I suppose.
In any case, preferential balloting is changing how candidates in big races, with a lot of challengers, campaign, several campaign managers tell me.
"It leads to a kindlier, gentler campaigning," said one manager. "That's because it's important that you are No. 2 on a ballot, because the guy listed as No. 1 could be eliminated before you and you then pick up his vote" in subsequent rounds of balloting, he said.
One example: Former U.S. Rep. Jim Hansen is showing well in several southern Utah counties, some campaign insiders say. Hansen represented the area for years in his 1st Congressional District, stood up to federal government public land bureaucrats, etc.
"In some of those southern counties, my guy is satisfied being second on the ballot to Hansen," says one manager. This guy's camp assumes Hansen will drop out of the counting at some point, and so a second place on that ballot will become a first place vote. (Hansen, of course, believes he won't be eliminated in early rounds of ballot counting but will finish first or second.)
Accordingly, in those strong Hansen counties it would be unwise to bash Hansen - for you could anger strong Hansen delegates who then would place the candidate doing the bashing well down on his or her preferential picks.
"In some cases, you need to be first on the ballot. Because the guy competing with you for first is a guy you may end up in a primary with - he's not going to be dropped out in early rounds of voting. But in some other cases, you're glad to be second, maybe even third, on someone's ballot. You know the one or two guys ahead of you won't make the final round - and you are going to get a first place vote when they drop off."
So, in a preferential voting convention you talk about yourself, how you can thump that Democrat in the final election, and so on. You stay positive.
You save any negative campaigning for the primary.
There it's one-vote takes all. And you can bloody a fellow Republican as much as you think the public can take it.
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.