RALEIGH, N.C. The state Senate today agreed to allow up to 20 counties and cities to try instant runoff elections as a way to avoid costly and poorly attended runoff elections a month or two after primaries.
The instant runoff would allow voters in local primary elections to rank their order of preference among the candidates listed.
The cities and counties haven't yet been selected.
Election officials first would tally only the first choices. If the leading candidate fails to win more than 40 percent of the votes, the top two candidates would advance to the runoff.
Election officials would then look at the ballots of voters whose preferred candidate was eliminated.
The candidates still left would get votes for being the highest-ranked alternative choice. Those votes would be added to the original tallies of the top two vote-getters and the candidate with the most total votes would win.
Instant runoffs are used in other states and in San Francisco.
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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.