On March 9, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe signed legislation requiring instant runoff ballots for all overseas absentee voters. This is an expansion of the state's successful use of ranked ballots to ensure overseas military voters' ballots are counted. The bill was approved unanimously by both houses of the legislature.

Springfield, IL, also has the opportunity to use instant runoff ballots to protect overseas voters. The city council has placed a measure for instant runoff ballots on the April 17 ballot. This measure has received support from the mayor and the county election administrator.

[ Why IRV is needed for military and overseas voters ]
[ Press Release from the Arkansas Secretary of State ]
[ Learn about the Springfield campaign at www.IncludeEveryVoter.org ]
[ Read the Arkansas law ]

Released on Thursday, March 14, The Democracy Protection Act: 40 Ways Toward a More Perfect Union calls on lawmakers to enact forty reforms including instant runoff voting, proportional voting and the National Popular Vote plan.

40 Ways is a joint publication of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, Demos, the New Democracy Project and Nation magazine. Other proposals range from public financing of campaigns to strengthening civil rights to reform of classroom science curricula. Each proposal has a small chapter explaining its details and rationale.

Paper copies are available for $7 from the New Democracy Project.

[ Download the brief (PDF-574kb) ]
[ Order copies from New Democracy Project ]
[ Proportional voting ]
[ Instant runoff voting ]
[ National Popular Vote links ]

On January 30th, Takoma Park, MD, held its first IRV election since voters approved IRV with 84% of the vote in November 2005. Reuben Snipper was elected to fill the vacant city council seat in Ward 5. Voter turnout was strong, up 35% from the mayoral election in 2005. Voters demonstrated a good understanding of IRV, with 99.5% of voters casting valid ballots.

FairVote's exit poll suggests quality voter education played a key role in the excellent valid ballot rate, with 80% of respondents knowing before the election that they would be asked to rank candidates. The poll also found voters like IRV, with 88% supporting the use of IRV for at least some offices.

[ FairVote's post-election press release ]
[ Election and exit poll results ]
[ Takoma Park's IRV education video featuring FairVote's Rob Richie ]
[ Washington Post front-page MD metro story ]
[ Baltimore Chronicle story ]
[ Gazette.Net story ]