Instant runoff - good idea?

[BOSSHOG]

Some states are fooling with the idea. If there are more than two candidates for an office, the voter would vote for their number one choice but also list 2nd, 3rd etc. The result would be an instant runoff vote. I'm not sold - yet!

[acmejack]

1. Save a lot of money & time.

Run offs are a real pain in the butt around here.

[BOSSHOG]

2. The money savings

instantly popped into my head. That would be quite a chuckle in the New Orleans Mayors Race with 24 candidates. And, people keeping up with politics should know who their second or third choice would be; otherwise they wouldn't have a first choice. Good Job Jack, you sold me.

[BlueEyedSon]

3. Excellent idea, makes 3rd party candidacy possible without the "spoiler

effect."

[endarkenment]

4. What is not to like?

Seriously, what are your objections?

[BOSSHOG]

7. I have no objections to a new idea

I just heard of this and am mulling it over.

[endarkenment]

9. Its in use lots of other places.

Also there have been quite a few studies of how various instant runoff schemes work. I think Scientific American published a few of them a while back. Applying IRV to presidential elections would require lots of legislative work (and either a constitutional amendment or a multi state initiative) as it makes little sense to implement IRV when we don't even get to vote directly for president and we use a winner take all plurality system.

Of course none of this matters if the voting infrastructure itself is compromised. Fraud is still fraud.

[MissMarple]

5. There is some thought it would dilute the current two party monopoly.

Some places are trying it out. Here's a link. http://www.instantrunoff.com/

[BlueEyedSon]

12. It can. 8^)

[Sawkrates]

14. Somewhat

I actually did a little campaign work for a citywide initative in Takoma Park MD support instant runoff voting.Most of the activists were greens. If it is implemented then it does away with the spoiler effect (ie voters will no longer have to worry about votes for a Green Party candidate costing the Dems an election.)

However so long as the present winner take all congressional district system is in place (ie where a candidate needs to win the support of an outright majority of the voters somewhere to win a seat in Congress) third parties will remain effectively shut out of the legislative process in the US.

Also, for more information on this sort of thing, please visit:

www.fairvote.org (shameless plug for a former employer)

[Che_Nuevara]

6. The mathematics of voting theory are quite interesting.

There's a long-standing argument about what the 'most democratic' way of voting actually is. Check out http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/voting_system for a discussion on different types of voting.

[Sawkrates]

16. My personal crackpot idea...

Would be to change the legislature so that each district elected multiple candidates, with their representation in congress related to the number of votes they recieve in a general election. (Ie if a Democrat got 60,000 votes in a congressional district they'd recieve 60,000 votes in the legislature, if a Republican got 30,000 votes in a district they'd get 30,000 in the legislature, etc).

This way everyone gets represented by a candidate of their choice, and nobody could argue that their vote didn't count.

[AllegroRondo]

8. It makes negative ads much less effective

because the person running the negative ads wont automatically become the default choice.

One side effect seen in San Francisco local elections, was candidates running campaign events together. They would get 20 or more candidates for mayor, with no limits on number of candidates per party. So - 2 or more candidates would get together and hold events. The idea being "vote for me, but if you vote for my friend here, pick me as a second choice".

It really changes the dynamics of election campaigns, and in a good way.

[thereismore]

10. Thom Hartmann is really excited about it. That's usually a good sign. nt

[mdmc]

11. can't be worse then what we got

:shrug:
now,
how do we get rid of the 'lectral college?:kick:

[FreedomAngel82]

13. I do like the idea

I think it would be a good idea.

[Sawkrates]

15. If it had been instituted in FL in 2000 Al Gore would now be POTUS

It would eliminate situations where a majority of voters want a liberal/progressive candidate, but a conservative wins because the liberal vote is split between a number of candidates and the conservative winds up with the most votes.

And for more info on this very topic, please visit:

www.fairvote.org (shameless plug for an ex employer)