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The 2008 election included a remarkable feature: all the candidates for president backed instant runoff voting. In its wake, support for "IRV" (also called "ranked choice voting") keeps growing. There have been a terrific series of commentaries and editorials in Minnesota and Georgia, where IRV would have protected majority rule in key Senate races, and insightful new commentaries from New America Foundation staff in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. Three impressive new reports from the Brookings Institution, Presbyterian Church and Strengthening Democracy coalition tout instant runoff voting.
In this year's elections, IRV was directly responsible for the election of the first woman county executive in Washington State history, with Pat McCarthy overcoming a deficit of 9% in first choices due to greater appeal among supporters of eliminated candidates, and the biggest spenders all lost in San Francisco's four most contested IRV races because money has less impact when voters have more choices and candidates more incentive to build coalitions.
Reports supporting IRV from
Brookings,
Presbyterian Church, and
Strengthening DemocracyNew pro-IRV opeds in
San Francisco Chronicle and
Los Angeles
TimesFairVote chair Krist Novoselic testifies about IRV in Washington
StateFormer U.S. Sen. David Durenberger (R) and
David Morris support
IRVGeorgia:
Athens paper supports IRV,
Atlanta Journal Constitution
commentary Examples of more Minnesota commentary from
Duluth,
St. Paul, and
Minneapolis