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Portland Press Herald
Support grows for switch to run-off
voting
By Tom Bell
February 19, 2003
AUGUSTA ’Äî Election reform advocates
are rallying behind legislation that would establish the instant
run-off voting method for national and state elections. Supporters
of the method - used in Australia and Ireland and some U.S. and
British cities - say it minimizes the "spoiler effect" that
occurs when an independent or third-party candidate prevents
any candidate from winning a majority of votes.
Under the current system, they say, a candidate can
win an election even when a significant majority of voters vote for
other candidates. They point to elections such as the 1998 election
in Minnesota that elected Jesse Ventura governor with just 37
percent of the vote.
The issue has particular resonance in Maine, where
each of last five governors - John Baldacci, Angus King, John
McKernan, Joseph Brennan and James Longley - has won at least one
election by less than a majority vote. King won with 36 percent of
the vote in 1994 in a four-way race.
Baldacci last November failed to win a majority vote in a
three-way race
with Republican Peter Cianchette and Green Party candidate
Jonathan Carter.
Instant runoff voting would create election results that "truly
reflect the
will of the people," said Thomas Bull, D-Freeport, the bill's
sponsor.
The bill's supporters, who failed to win legislative
support two years ago, are better-organized this year, and their
list of co-sponsors include House Majority leader John Richardson,
D-Brunswick, and Senate President Beverly Daggett, D-Augusta. Three
other legislators submitted similar bills.
The opposition includes Maine Municipal Association
and the Maine Town and City Clerks Association. Both groups believe
the proposal would confuse voters, cause municipalities to spend
money to reprogram their ballot-counting machines, and make the job
of hand-counting ballots even more daunting.
"The process being presented to you is easier said
than done," said MMA lobbyist Kate Defour at a public hearing
Tuesday before the Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs.
The instant runoff method works by simulating the
ballot counts that would occur if all voters participated in a
series of run-off elections. Voters are allowed to rank candidates
according to their preference. If a candidate gets more than 50
percent of the votes, he or she is declared the winner. But if
nobody gets a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice
votes is eliminated and the second-choice votes designated by that
candidate's supporters are distributed accordingly to the remaining
candidates.
The process continues until one candidate receives a
clear majority.
The Vermont Legislature, which has been studying the
issue for several years, is poised to enact the method this year.
Vermont Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz, an advocate for the
new system, believes it will reduce negative campaigning because
candidates will reach out to supporters of other candidates in
search of second preferences.
Arn Pearson, executive director of the Maine Citizen
Leadership Fund, agrees. "It takes away the whole incentive to tear
the other guy down," he said.
From an academic position, the method is winning
converts. The American Political Science Association concluded that
instant runoff is the most efficient and democratic election system
and adopted it to elect the group's own leaders.
Cambridge, Mass. and San Francisco have adopted
instant runoff voting, but no state or county has used the method to
elect state or federal candidates. Julie Flynn, the Maine Secretary
of State's deputy director, told the legislative committee that the
method does not have a proven history of working in a complicated
place like Maine, which has 647 precincts and 328 official ballot
styles. She said 79 percent of the state's municipalities hand count
ballots.
Establishing such a system in Maine, she said, would
require extensive study. |
