Knesset Election, March 2006
By Ryan Griffin, Research Fellow
Published April 5th 2006
Israel held elections to its parliament, the Knesset, on March 28,
2006. Frequently held up as an example of why not to adopt proportional
voting, Israel's election system, critics argue, tends to produce
unstable, unworkable governing coalitions. But this tendency has less
to do with proportional voting than the form Israel has chosen to use,
in tandem with its wider political environment. This report focuses on
the effects of Israel's low electoral threshold and closed party list
system.
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.