Follow-up to Birdy’s IRV Post
Here is an interesting animation that shows how Instant Runoff Voting works. However, I still stand by the comments I left on Birdy’s post. This is interesting only in a purely theoretical sort of way. Practically, I envision some counties (not to cast aspersions, but let us use Miami-Dade as an entirely hypothetical example) that just will not be able to figure this ballot out. The (future) litigator in me, however, says that there are a lot of potential fees in a plan like this one.
Posted: October 4th, 2007 under National Interest.
Comments: 2
Comments
Comment from Terry Bouricius
Time: 6 October 2007, 9:55 am
ACtually, voters have proven to have no difficulty with the ranked ballot used for instant runoff voting. In my city, of Burlington Vermont, we use IRV for mayoral elections, and in the first election using this method 99.9% of ballots were valid, and exit polls showed voters overwhelmingly preferred IRV over the old system.
Terry Bouricius
Comment from Karl
Time: 6 October 2007, 10:23 am
I\’m sure that\’s true. But, perhaps that only says that voters in Burlington, Vermont are a tad more astute than those who reside in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is interesting to find, however, that this system is being used in actual elections. Are they using a computerized system to tabulate the votes? What happens if someone ranks his top two choices in a four candidate race, but doesn\’t indicate a ranking for the other two candidates? Is this a valid ballot? If all of a voters\’ top ranked candidates drop out and the ballot no longer contains a ranked candidate, does it just cease to be counted in the vote?
It seems there are a number of questions with a system like this that may or may not have been resolved in Burlington. I suppose I just like the idea, at least with respect to national elections, of dividing the electors according to Congressional districts. In Indiana, which tends to go Red normally, this would give districts with a Blue tinge more of a voice by dividing Indiana\’s electors between Red and Blue. In California, by contrast, Red would receive more of a voice.
This seems fair to me. And, it has the virtue of not raising a host of questions that may result in election litigation.
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