Instant Runoff Voting: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

By Steve Chessin
Published November 28th 2002 in Business Week

There is a simple solution to both major parties' fear that third parties will "spoil" their elections: instant runoff voting ("The greens vs. the Dems: Another nightmare on Election Street?" Washington Outlook, Oct. 28). Instant runoff voting is used in Ireland (to elect the President), in Australia (to elect the House of Representatives), and in London (to elect the mayor), and it will be used for all San Francisco elections beginning in 2003. IRV is already used by absentee voters in Louisiana. Voters indicate their second choice at the same time as their first, and the winner must receive a majority of the vote.

Steve Chessin
Californians for Electoral Reform
Mountain View, Calif.

IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
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.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

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