FairVote straw poll: Take Back America picks Gore for 2008 Democratic nominee

by Jack Santucci // Published June 15, 2006
In the exhibit hall of the Washington Hilton this week, Take Back America conference participants cast IRV ballots in a straw poll for the 2008 Democratic presidential nominee. They chose Al Gore over Russ Feingold 51 to 49 percent.

Under IRV, or instant runoff voting, voters rank their candidates in order of preference - 1 for their favorite, 2 for their second favorite, and so on. The winner must have a majority. If no candidate has a majority of first choices, an instant runoff kicks in. The candidate with fewest first choices is eliminated, and those ballots count toward the respective voters' second choices.

Feingold led the first round with one more first choice than Gore. Barack Obama was a handful of first choices behind. By the 9th round, Feingold led Gore, with Obama behind both. But in the tenth round, voters who had supported Obama broke in favor of Gore, making him the winner.

Under traditional primary rules, Feingold would have won with a narrow plurality of 22%. Obama would have been a spoiler candidate - and a focal point for the opprobrium of many Democrats.

91% of ballots factored into the count in the tenth decisive round, telling us there was relatively little undervoting (or non-use of one's full voting strength). It also suggests there were relatively few wasted votes (or votes that do not help elect a candidate). Indeed 51% of votes were effective. By contrast, under traditional primary rules, 79% of votes would have been wasted. This was a very fractured electorate - as 10 rounds of counting indicates - but IRV still picked a majority winner with minimal wasted votes.

2.4% of voters cast invalid ballots - not at all shabby given there had been zero voter education. Voters also were distracted by our pitching reforms to them, activity at other tables and simultaneous conversations with other participants.

FairVote has run IRV straw polls at Take Back America for the last three years. You can see results and analysis for 2004 and 2005.

We're interested in your own analysis of the results, which you can download here in Excel format. Assuming the three poll leaders - Gore, Feingold and Obama - don't run, who will pick up the support of progressive Dems? Without Feingold in the race, what would have happened to Gore? To lower ranked candidates?

Notes on counting rules

1) When candidates tied for elimination, we eliminated the one with the least core support - or fewest first choices.

2) We eliminated McCain, Brown and Vilsack - with one first choice each - together in the first round.

Comments currently closed for FairVote straw poll: Take Back America picks Gore for 2008 Democratic nominee

  • [...] Last year, Gore beat Feingold in the ninth round of counting, when Obama supporters broke for the former Vice President. [...]

    Posted by The FairVote Blog » Democratic IRV straw poll, 2007-06-21 09:56:49 (6 years ago)

  • Low turnout goes beyond money in politics. Consider that 98.5% of incumbents returned to the U.S. House in 2006. Competitive districts - more precisely, the meaningful opportunity to elect a representative person - would give people added incentive to find the voting booth.

    Posted by Jack, 2006-08-06 23:28:16 (7 years ago)

  • Feingold is the better candidate, has a great record, stands for what is good and for people. Therefore, he has no chance whatever to win either in any primary or general natioanl election, where tainted money rules. We apparently need another Great Depression, or environmental catastrophe, or something similarly horrible, in order for common sense (a commodity in very short supply) to find its way back to the voting booth. In fact, it may take such a catastrophe for the mafority of registered voters who don't bother to vote to even FIND the voting booth.

    Posted by Pud Hansen, 2006-08-06 18:47:26 (7 years ago)

  • There were ten candidates with 11 potential rankings - one more for a write-in. You can see the whole list by downloading the linked spreadsheet.

    Posted by Jack, 2006-07-20 10:25:04 (7 years ago)

  • (There must have been amuch longer list of candidates than those named for there to have been ten "rounds") ---The "additive" form of RB, is to count first choices & then, if noone has 50 %, to add in the next choices, & so on, until someone finally does. RB is the sole unchangeable plank & bylaw of the Preferential (what RB???s called in Robert???s Rules of Order) Ballot Party, the only practicable third party. The more skewed, less top dead center, more commonly espoused, ???eliminative??? form of RB, is called ???IRV??? (Instant Runoff Voting, though both additive & eliminative give instant runoff) allows only first & second choices to count, & only the losers even get that. It might offer ???protection to ???minorities??????, but that is provided by the fact that RB gives an equal chanceof winning to all programs. One must beware of what snakes one looses.

    Posted by ZoeZidbeck, 2006-07-20 00:45:31 (7 years ago)