By Gibran Rivera
Published September 17th 2002 in Boston Globe
There's a good chance in today's primaries and in the final election that the winners will not get a majority of the votes. Lower-ranking candidates may be called spoilers by some. But why shouldn't the winner have a majority? Is it not fair that voters should expect the winner to win with 50 percent or more?
A runoff should be part of today's vote and the final elections in November to ensure that the winners are actually the choice of the majority. A second runoff election can be costly and have low voter turnout. The better solution is to adopt instant runoff voting. Instant runoff voting allows voters to indicate their runoff choices in addition to their first choice by ranking them 1, 2, 3, etc. If no candidate gets an outright majority, the votes of the least favored candidates are transferred to the candidates still in the running. This deters negative campaigning because candidates must worry about attracting votes from their opponents.
Roberts Rules of Order recommends this system. It is already used effectively in elections in Ireland, Australia, and England. With instant runoff voting, the spoiler problem is eliminated. Instead of suppressing third parties or candidates, they can join the debate while still ensuring that the winner is the choice of the majority of all voters.
Gibran Rivera
Chairman
Mass VOTE
Boston
A runoff should be part of today's vote and the final elections in November to ensure that the winners are actually the choice of the majority. A second runoff election can be costly and have low voter turnout. The better solution is to adopt instant runoff voting. Instant runoff voting allows voters to indicate their runoff choices in addition to their first choice by ranking them 1, 2, 3, etc. If no candidate gets an outright majority, the votes of the least favored candidates are transferred to the candidates still in the running. This deters negative campaigning because candidates must worry about attracting votes from their opponents.
Roberts Rules of Order recommends this system. It is already used effectively in elections in Ireland, Australia, and England. With instant runoff voting, the spoiler problem is eliminated. Instead of suppressing third parties or candidates, they can join the debate while still ensuring that the winner is the choice of the majority of all voters.
Gibran Rivera
Chairman
Mass VOTE
Boston
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.