Content Categorized with "Instant Runoff Voting"
31 - 40 of 658 results
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Ranked choice voting in major elections
- Posted: November 4, 2011
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting in Bay Area Elections, Instant Runoff Voting, Home
Ranked choice choice voting (RCV, or instant runoff) accommodates voters having more than two choices at the polls. This month, San Francisco (CA) will elect a mayor and two other citywide leaders with RCV. Portland (ME) and Telluride (CO) will elect mayors in hotly contested RCV races, and St. Paul (MN) and Takoma Park (MD) will elect city councilors with RCV. In Ireland, Michael Higgins was elected president with RCV, breaking out of a 7-candidate field for a landslide win thanks to a combination of strong first choice rankings and backup preferences from supporters of losing candidates. Cambridge (MA) will use the choice voting form of RCV that provides fair representation to its voters.
FairVote has been deeply involved in many of these implementations and will be tracking elections closely next week. Although controversial with some, RCV is working well -- and has strong backing from almost all mayoral candidates in both Portland and San Francisco. For more on the races, see:
- RCV in San Francisco: New opeds by Matt Gonzalez & Steven Hill
- Portland: Our Portlandvotes123.com, TV local news story and FairVote voter survey
- Coverage in Freakonomics
- Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio & Economist on San Francisco
- Associated Press on Portland
- Cambridge: Candidates for school board & city council
- Rob Richie blogs on Irish presidential election
- St. Paul elections: Voter education site & Star-Tribune commentary
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Occupy and Democracy Reforms: A Match Made in Heaven?
- Posted: October 19, 2011
- Author(s): Dorothy Scheeline
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, Home
Democracy reforms have the unique ability to challenge the status quo in a way that fits in very well with the goals of the Occupy movement. It’s a nonpartisan solution to inequality that challenges corporate influence in politics by changing the system to focus more on the voter and less on the candidate. Changing the structure of our electoral system is the first step to creating a space for more voices and points of view within our political process. Maintaining the system we currently have- a stilted, two-party system with low voter turnout isn’t an option any more.
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Ranked Choice Voting in Action
- Posted: September 29, 2011
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting in Bay Area Elections, Instant Runoff Voting, Home
Ranked choice voting or instant runoff voting ensures that the candidate that wins an election wins the majority of the vote. Voters will use ranked choice voting this fall in several exciting races: wide-open elections for mayor in San Francisco (CA) and Portland (ME); the presidential race in Ireland; and for other city races in the U.S., including St. Paul (MN). New voter education initiatives are helping show how easy ranked choice voting is for voters, and there have been excellent media stories.
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The Next Generation of Reformers: Reasons for Young People to Get Involved in the Electoral Reform Movement
- Posted: August 24, 2011
- Author(s): Dorothy Scheeline
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, Home, National Popular Vote, Learning Democracy, Right to Vote Amendment, Universal Voter Registration
A lot of the people advocating for structural changes do so because we have problems with the established political culture. The group of people that is 18-29 right now has a lot of reasons to want deep systemic change soon. Because of this, I think that over the next decade we will see groups that are focused on young people intensify their advocacy efforts for election reform issues.
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Federal Primary Runoff Elections and Voter Turnout Declines, 1994 - 2010
- Posted: August 10, 2011
- Author(s): Katherine Sicienski, Rob Richie, Will Hix
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, All Reports
Many states currently use runoff election systems during primaries for statewide federal posts. However, it appears that the two election runoff system leads to high turnout declines and a less representative second election.
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Why Approval Voting is Unworkable in Contested Elections
- Posted: July 30, 2011
- Author(s): The Non-Majority Rule Desk
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, FairVote
Approval voting is a method of voting to elect single winners that has adherents among some voting theorists, but it is unworkable in contested elections in which voters have a stake in the outcome. Once aware of how approval voting works, strategic voters will always earn a significant advantage over less informed voters. This problem with strategic voting far outweighs any other factor when evaluating the potential use of approval voting in governmental elections - and is also true of range voting, score voting, the Borda Count and Bucklin voting.
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Ranked Choice Absentee Ballots: Preventing the Disenfranchisement of Military and Overseas Voters
- Posted: July 21, 2011
- Author(s): Cynthia Okechukwu
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, Reforms
American citizens living abroad, including men and women in uniform, often face difficulties in voting in elections at home. Military and overseas voters continue to point to short ballot turnaround times as an obstacle to voting in federal, state, and local elections. Ranked choice absentee ballots provide a legal and practical solution to this problem.
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Big Rhode Island win for better voting & IRV
- Posted: July 15, 2011
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, Home
On July 13th, Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee signed H 6176 into law. Introduced on May 19th with the backing of FairVote Rhode Island, the bill passed the state Senate 35-2 and House 70-0. It establishes a voter choice study commission charged with studying ranked choice voting (RCV, or "instant runoff voting) and other options designed to increase voter participation and accountability, uphold majority rule and produce fiscal savings. The commission will issue a report by January 2012. A report by a similar commission in Colorado in 2007 led to a 2008 law allowing all localities to use RCV.
Rhode Island has a history of electing candidates with only plurality support, including the 2010 governor's race won with 36%. RCV would avoid "spoiler" dynamics in such election.
Additional Links:
- FairVote's updated InstantRunoff.com
- Colorado Commission Report from 2007
- Blog post on non-majority winners in 2010
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Major Legal Victory for Ranked Choice Voting – and Reform
- Posted: June 17, 2011
- Author(s): Rob Richie, Lesley Delaney Hawkins
- Categories: Ranked Choice Voting in Bay Area Elections, Instant Runoff Voting, Home
On May 20th, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower federal court ruling rejecting a legal challenge to the City of San Francisco's use of ranked choice voting (RCV, also known as instant runoff voting, or IRV). The three-judge panel emphatically dismissed the plaintiffs' arguments, including a particularly clear rejection of the claim that RCV violates the principles of one-person, one-vote or equal protection under the law.
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AMPAS Modifies Best Picture Nomination Method, Maintains Proportional Voting Principles
- Posted: June 16, 2011
- Author(s): Oscar Votes 123
- Categories: Instant Runoff Voting, Fair Voting/Proportional Representation
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has a long history of using innovative voting methods to select the nominees and winners of its annual Academy Award "Oscars". This month it announced changes in the way nominations for the sought-after Best Picture award will be determined. The Academy announced that, beginning next year, a modified system similar to choice voting will be used to select Best Picture nominees, with choice voting continued to be used to select five nominees in most other categories. It also announced that ranked choice voting (RCV, or "instant runoff voting" or "preferential voitng") willl continue to be used for the final vote for Best Picture.