By Dan Johnson-Weinberger
Published November 18th 2003 in The Illinois Leader
Mr. Zahm entreats Lake County conservatives planning a primary challenge to moderate incumbents to force one of two potential conservative challengers out of the race in order to avoid a repeat of the unsuccessful contest in 2002 where two male candidates split the conservative vote ["Don't Split the Vote in Lake County," November 13].
Isn't there a better way to consolidate the electorate's voting power than to engage in the back room bossism inherent in any attempt to reach an "agreement" to push a hungry candidate out of the race?
We should improve our voting system in primary elections.
Candidates should be forced to earn a majority (50% + 1) of the votes in a primary in order to secure the nomination, to ensure the candidate with the broadest support wins. The best way to do that without holding a separate runoff election is Irish-style instant runoff voting.
Voters get a first choice and a second choice candidate. If no candidate
earns a majority of the first-choice votes, an instant runoff is held. Everyone but the top two candidates are eliminated.
The ballots are counted again. First-choice votes for eliminated candidates are ignored, and the second-choice votes on only those ballots are counted (as if a runoff election were held and supporters of eliminated candidates had to choose among the surviving candidates). These second-choice votes, added on the first-choice votes of the surviving candidates, show which candidate earned the majority of support and with it, the nomination.
The wonderful opportunity that instant runoff voting provides is the chance for several hungry candidates to run, energize voters, and articulate issues without any negative consequence of splitting the vote.
Eliminating the spoiler dynamics of our current primary election system will liberate candidates to run and end the outdated phenomenon of similar candidates in a hard-fought primary ensuring each other's doom.
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.