And yes, it was posted to the wrong blog article. thanks anyway.

Also, how many of these Independent and minor party presidential candidates are, after the election, going to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work of interest group based organizing for electoral reform?

Bob Bar refused to attend Paul’s press conference on the subject. Nader has talked about various electoral reforms over the decades but probably has not lent his support to Fair Vote or Ballot Access News…

I think this question got posted to the wrong blog article, but it should be answered anyway.

In an instant runoff election, when no candidate has a majority (50% + 1 vote), a candidate is eliminated from the race before the votes are counted again. That candidate’s votes are redistributed (sometimes this is called “transferred”) to each voter’s next choice. If a voter’s next choice has already been eliminated, then the vote moves to the voter’s next choice after that.

This process of elimination from the bottom up continues until one candidate has a majority.

There’s absolutely no trickery here. Every step of the way, every voter’s vote is counted equally — for the voter’s highest ranked candidate who still has a chance of winning.

I’m pretty sure your suggestion of multiple-part forms would make counting more complicated rather than less. Counting with ordinary one-part ballots is actually simple. You just need one pile per candidate. When a candidate is eliminated, separate the ballots in that pile according to the next-ranked candidate on each. If a ballot can’t be transferred because the voter didn’t rank all the candidates and the ones she did rank have all been eliminated, that ballot goes in the “exhausted pile” and no longer counts toward determining how many votes is a majority.

Hope this helps.

This part seems like trickery to me.
And please don’t point me to to website.

As for the processing, wouldn’t it be simpler to have TWO ballots, attached to each other, but tearable by the counting election official, who checks for identical votes, but then puts the second choice ballot in a separate ballot box? In this way it’s easier to process the votes. The 2nd ballot box only needs to be opened only if there’s no majority.

Think of the ballot paper as two Kleenex tissues still attached to each other via a perforated tear line. The first choice part has a different color than the second, lets say white and light yellow.

1. Voter hands in a double ballot, election official (EO) checks to see if the ballot is intact and still in two parts
2. On counting, the EO opens the ballotbox, checks if the names are distinct tears the ballot in two, and puts the ballots in their respective boxes.
3. If the counting of the first choice ballots don’t produce a majority, then the 2nd choice ballot boxes are opened and counted.
4. if there’s equal # of votes, a recount is started.