Takoma Park, MD held its first instant runoff voting election on Tuesday. It was a special election to fill a city council vacancy in ward five.

FairVote ran an exit poll all day. Here are some preliminary results:

The city successfully informed 80 percent of voters that the election would use ranked choice

· Before coming to vote, did you know you would be asked to rank choices?
o Yes -80.3%
o No -19.7%

88 percent of voters found instant runoff voting easy to use

· How difficult or easy did you find the concept of ranking candidates?
o Very easy - 61.8%
o Easy - 26.3%
o Neither difficult or easy - 10.5%
o Difficult - 1.3%

88 percent of voters support instant runoff voting for additional elections

· Would you like to see instant runoff
voting used in state and national elections?
o Local, state and national - 55.1%
o Local and state only - 20.2%
o Local only - 13.0%
o No elections - 11.6%

Other posts by FairVote Staff

• The Electoral College does not benefit small states - April 18th, 2007
• Winter e-news - February 22nd, 2007
• First Takoma Park IRV Election: Exit Poll - January 31st, 2007
• Rob at Kent State - January 8th, 2007
• Fierce testimonials at the Yes on Three blog - October 20th, 2006
• Elect-a-Date! - September 20th, 2006
• Rob Richie talks redistricting on air - September 5th, 2006
• National Popular Vote on... Facebook! - September 5th, 2006
• FairVote at APSA - August 29th, 2006
• FairVote launches Internet Action Team - July 30th, 2006