Majority rule and genuine voter choice are marks of a functioning democracy. To promote voter choice in high turnout elections, we encourage understanding, adoption and effective implementation of instant runoff voting, a ranked choice voting system used in a growing number of American elections.
This fall marks a key season for instant runoff voting, the ranked choice voting method that accommodates more voter choice in elections. IRV will be used for the first time in elections in three California cities, including Oakland and San Leandro in hotly contested races for mayor,and to elect several judges in North Carolina. After recommendations by charter commissions, it's on the ballot in Maine's largest city (Portland) and Tennessee's largest county (Shelby).
Overseas, Australia holds national IRV elections on August 21 and the United Kingdom is moving to a national referendum next year to adopt it.
Learn More:
Questions about IRV? See www.irvfactcheck.com & www.instantrunoff.com
After a much-anticipated vote, ranked-choice voting is a go in San Leandro.
"Instant-runoff voting is working in communities across the country, including San Francisco and Burlington, Vt., and has tremendous potential to democratize our politics."
On November 24th 2007, Australia elected its House of Representatives with instant runoff voting (IRV), as it has for more than eight decades. After four straight election defeats, the Labor Party won a landslide majority of seats. Under IRV, Labor's initial 44% of first choices turned into a clear majority after considering the choices of supporters of third party candidates with too little support to win seats. The Green Party's 7.79% share of the national vote largely went to Labor in House races; that share earned several senate seats elected by proportional voting. Due in large part to compulsory voting, turnout was 94.77%; Australians rank near the top of national comparisons of voter satisfaction with their government. [read more]
