This Election Day, 1.5 million voters in Minneapolis, Pierce County, Wash., Davis, Calif., and Oakland, Calif., will decide whether they want to switch to a new voting system called Instant Runoff Voting, or IRV. I hope these measures pass. IRV can help ensure majority rule and prevent third-party candidates from becoming spoilers.

Instant Runoff Voting is a system in which voters can choose a first choice, a second choice and a third choice. All of the first choices are tallied, and the candidate who receives a majority (more than 50 percent) wins. If no candidate has a majority, then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and each vote that was cast for him is transferred to the voter's second choice.

Democrats can benefit from a switch to Instant Runoff Voting. Had IRV been in place during the 2000 election, thousands of the 79,000 Florida voters who selected Ralph Nader for president probably would have picked Al Gore as their second choice, resulting in a win for Gore. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama introduced pro- IRV legislation in the Illinois Senate in 2002.

But IRV can also help Republicans. In conservative Alaska, after a Democrat won the 1994 governor's race because the conservative vote was split between the GOP nominee and the Alaskan Independence Party's candidate, the Republican Party of Alaska state convention endorsed an IRV ballot initiative. Their 2002 resolution declared, "Alaskan voters should be able to vote their conscience without fear of wasting their vote or helping elect candidates they least prefer." Sen. John McCain campaigned for the measure, saying, "Instant runoff voting will lead to good government because voters will elect leaders who have the support of a majority."

And of course, third parties have good reason to support IRV, because they cannot win elections as long as most of the electorate considers a vote for them to be a wasted vote. IRV backers recently formed an organization called Virginians for Instant Runoff Voting, whose advisory committee includes Scott Burger, activism chair for the Green Party of Virginia, and Leesburg resident Bill Redpath, chair of the United States Libertarian Party.

The group's website is at www.virv.org.

With all of this support, one might ask, Why aren't we already using IRV in Virginia? North Carolina and Washington state have adopted legislation to allow IRV pilot projects at the local level. Our delegates and senators should consider passing a similar bill.

Nathan Larson resides in Catlett. The views expressed by op-ed writers do not necessarily reflect those of management of The Augusta Free Press.