Two elections, one trip to voteBy EDITORIAL
Published July 24th 2006 in Wilmington Star News
Wilmington is about to waste money and time to fill a vacated seat on
the City Council. It will hold a special election in October and, if
necessary, a runoff during the regular election in November. That's
what state law requires.
The General Assembly would like to experiment with a different approach that could save time and money and yield results that more accurately reflect the desires of voters.
In theory, we hold runoffs to guarantee that the winner will have a majority of votes. In reality, so few voters turn out for most runoffs that the winner gets a majority of a handful.
It's an expensive, time-consuming and annoying process that often produces an undemocratic result.
The most promising alternative seems to work in other states and some cities. Now both houses of the N.C. General Assembly have passed bills to allow some localities to try it.
Called the "instant runoff," it allows voters to rank their choices: 1) Jason Johnson, 2) Jennifer Jones, 3) Joshua Jankowski, 4) Janet Jackson.
If no candidate wins at least 40 percent of the votes, the top two are awarded the votes from those who ranked them second.
It's logical, it's democratic, it's instant. It's time North Carolina tried it.
The General Assembly would like to experiment with a different approach that could save time and money and yield results that more accurately reflect the desires of voters.
In theory, we hold runoffs to guarantee that the winner will have a majority of votes. In reality, so few voters turn out for most runoffs that the winner gets a majority of a handful.
It's an expensive, time-consuming and annoying process that often produces an undemocratic result.
The most promising alternative seems to work in other states and some cities. Now both houses of the N.C. General Assembly have passed bills to allow some localities to try it.
Called the "instant runoff," it allows voters to rank their choices: 1) Jason Johnson, 2) Jennifer Jones, 3) Joshua Jankowski, 4) Janet Jackson.
If no candidate wins at least 40 percent of the votes, the top two are awarded the votes from those who ranked them second.
It's logical, it's democratic, it's instant. It's time North Carolina tried it.
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.