Instant runoff voting system passes testBy Greg Lucas
Published July 10th 2004 in San Francisco Chronicle
The instant runoff voting system approved by San Francisco voters two years ago won approval by an independent testing agency last week, paving the way for the system's use in the November election.
Although state officials had certified the system for use in April, they imposed a number of conditions, among them passage of federally required testing.
Ranked-choice voting was adopted by San Francisco voters in 2002. It was supposed to be used in last fall's mayoral election, but the system had not received state or federal approval at the time.
Ranked choice or instant runoff voting eliminates San Francisco's December runoff by allowing voters to rank their top three choices.
If no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote on the first count, the bottom candidate drops out and the votes are tallied until one candidate emerges with 50 percent.
Mark Kyle, undersecretary of state, said California would amend San Francisco's certification as early as Monday to reflect the successful testing, and send official approval to the city shortly after that.
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.