IRV in the News

Memphis Votes Overwhelmingly to Adopt IRV

Instant Runoff Voting is Worth a Look

Published in the Daily Breeze, June 15, 2007

Local agencies can spend less on elections because the primary and runoff occur simultaneously, which would mean less voter fatigue. The last two elections supervised by the Los Angeles City Clerk's Office produced dismally low turnouts. Only 10 percent of registered voters took part in the March primary election, and the May runoff election drew only about 7 percent. Read more.

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Los Angeles may vote for change: instant runoffs, new dates some proposals for combating low turnout
Published in the Los Angeles Daily News, June 14
To entice Angelenos back to the polls after record-low turnouts in recent years, the city is mulling a host of changes, including new election dates, more mail-in voting and instant runoff voting. In this year's election, 10 percent of registered voters participated in the March primary and 7 percent turned out for the May general election. The reason? Read more.
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Instant runoff might be fix for voter fatigue
Published in the Los Angeles Times, June 11
Let's begin by agreeing that the Los Angeles City Council's Rules and Elections Committee is not exactly Comedy Central. That's not saying committee Chairman Eric Garcetti isn't a host with a sense of humor. He is. But hey, it's Rules and Elections. Short of passing out whoopee cushions and nachos, you can only do so much. Read more.
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No Way to Run an Election, Opinion Piece by Steven Hill and Lynne Serpe, published in the Los Angeles Times, May 17

The sound of hissing air leaking out of Los Angeles democracy is unmistakable. A check-in at one precinct by 2:00 p.m. on election day revealed that only two voters out of the 1,073 registered in that precinct had turned out to vote. By the close of the polls, it was up to four. This makes the 10% overall turnout in the March 6 elections -- already the lowest in decades -- look like a democratic flood. Read more.
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A Better Way to Vote, Published April 19th 2007 in USA Today

"The majority rules!" is one of the most frequently heard battle cries of American politics, but the reality is otherwise: Every year, in scores of state and local elections, no candidate wins a majority. That results in either costly runoffs or "winners" who in fact have been rejected by as many as two-thirds of the voters in a multi-candidate field. Read More...
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Key Electoral Reform Hearing Tomorrow in California Assembly on AB 1294, By Rob Dickinson Published April 16th 2007 in The California Progress Report
Your help is needed today and tomorrow to move important electoral reform legislation forward in the California Assembly. AB 1294, introduced by Assembly Members Mullin (D-19) and Leno (D-13), would allow all local jurisdictions (cities, counties, and districts) to use ranked voting systems to elect their representatives. Read More...
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USAC looks into changing voting system for May elections, By Lucy Benz-Rogers & Jennifer Han Published March 8, 2007 in The Daily Bruin

New undergrad voting system may go to referendum
AUS exec hopes SSMU members will vote “yes” to instant-runoff voting system like that of Australia, Ireland
By Nicholas Smith Published February 16th 2007 in The McGill Daily
No voting system is perfect, but Ross Margulies has a vision for a SSMU election system that he thinks can come closer.Margulies, U3 Political Science and Arts Undergraduate Society VP Finance, is collecting signatures for a referendum question to change SSMU’s single-winner elections to instant-runoff voting (IRV). Read More...

Takoma Park's New Vote System Makes Debut
By Miranda S. Spivack Published February 8th 2007 in Washington Post
Takoma Park, among the first places in the country to label itself a nuclear-free zone, is once again in the vanguard of a political movement: instant runoff voting. Read More...

Instant runoff voting unveiled in Ward 5 election
New candidate ranking system ‘easy or very easy,’ residents at polls say
By Agnes Jasinski Published February 7th 2007 in The Gazette
While special elections are rare in Takoma Park, there was something even more unusual in how residents elected Reuben Snipper, their new Ward 5 councilman.This was the first time the city and the state used instant runoff voting (IRV), allowing voters to rank their candidates in order of choice. Read More...

IRV lets voters rank candidates
Published February 5th 2007 in Trenton Times
Ralph Nader is back in the spotlight again. He's the subject of a new documentary film, "An Unreasonable Man." And he's making the rounds of the talk shows, promoting his latest book -- and continuing to insist that he didn't cost Al Gore the 2000 election. In fact, he claims, Gore would have received fewer votes than he did if Nader hadn't been on the ticket as the Green Party candidate, pushing him to the left. Read More...

Eliminating Runoffs
Long Beach Press- Telegram Editorial, January 28, 2007
Long Beach voters will have about all they want to deal with in the way of charter amendments in the May 1 election, but here's one to consider for another time: fewer elections. It's clear voters would appreciate it, as evidenced in abysmally low turnouts in runoff elections. The way to handle that, as Oakland and other cities have decided, is simply to eliminate them. Oakland voters in November approved an "instant runoff" in which they will select first, second and third choices. Read More...

Instant Runoff Voting Touted

by Nancy Vogel, Los Angeles Times, December 26, 2006
SACRAMENTO - Americans have been picking politicians the same way for so long - winner take all - that it might seem there is no other way to do it. But the cities of Davis, Calif.; Oakland and Minneapolis, as well as Pierce County, Wash.; have passed ballot measures that will lead to "instant runoff" or "proportional representation" voting in city and county elections. There was no organized opposition to the measures. Their success has energized election reform advocates who say the United States should join most other democracies and pick politicians in a way that doesn't shut out the 49% of voters who may have favored someone other than the majority winner. Read more...

Why Ed Jew Won - and What it Means

by Paul Hogarth, November 13, 2006 (Beyond Chron)
In the final leg of San Francisco’s elections, Ed Jew surprised pundits by pulling ahead and winning the District 4 Supervisor race. This was the first election since the City implemented Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) where a candidate who did not lead among the first-choice votes carried enough second-choice votes to make it over the top and win. Read more...

IRV, better democracy win big in Minneapolis

November 12, 2006
The proposal to use Instant Runoff Voting for Minneapolis elections won by a 2-to-1 margin on Tuesday. The victory and its size surprised many long-time political observers. Read more...

Consider choice voting, Davis says

by Erika Chavez, November 9, 2006 (Sacramento Bee)
Davis voters are interested in changing the way their City Council is elected. That was the message sent by Tuesday's election, when 54.7 percent of voters approved Measure L. The advisory measure asked voters whether they want the city to consider adopting choice voting and abandon traditional plurality voting. Read more...

Instant runoff heads to victory

by Heather MacDonald, November 8, 2006 (Oakland Tribune)
Measure O, which asked voters to change the City Charter to allow instant runoff voting, appeared headed to victory with 68 percent of the vote, according to early returns. The change will allow voters to rank at least three candidates in order of their preference to avoid costly runoff elections. Supporters contend it will save money, increase turnout and discourage negative campaigning. Read more...

Support Better Representation - Yes on L

by Chris Jerdonek, Lois Richter, and Joseph Stewart
This November, Davis voters can move democracy forward and get better representation in our local elections. Measure L is an advisory measure. Measure L asks that "choice voting" be considered as the way to elect our city council. Choice voting would ensure that the winning candidates represent over two-thirds of the voters in every election. Read more...

Vote 'yes' for Charter Amendment 3

by Editorial Board, November 1st 2006 (Peninsula Gateway)
Pierce County, WA - IRV would replace the unpopular pick-a-party system and avoids the constitutional issues of the blanket primary and the top-two format. It lowers election costs by eliminating the primary elections, which traditionally have a lower turnout. IRV accomplishes what is essentially a race between the two most popular candidates in one election. Read more...

Measure O is good for Oakland

by Nancy J. Nadel, November 1st 2006 (Bay Area BusinessWoman)
On November 7, Oaklanders will have an opportunity to vote on Measure O which will greatly improve elections by saving taxpayers up to a half -million tax dollars per election cycle, improving the quality of political campaigns, and by holding elections when turn-out is greatest. Read more...

Campaign 2006 and Bringing Instant Runoff Voting to the Tipping Point

by Rob Richie, October 27th 2006 (opednews.com)
Pierce County, Oakland and Minneapolis Vote to Eliminate Primaries and Adopt IRV - It's been a big year for instant runoff voting (IRV), the powerful tool to give voters real choices in our elections without charges of "spoilers." A sweep of three current IRV campaigns and a fourth campaign for the proportional voting version of IRV would provide a big boost toward IRV's mainstream acceptance. Read more...

IRV, a better way

by Krist Novoselic, October 26, 2006 (The Nation)
With IRV, participation has more meaning. Some voters can rank their heartfelt choice first while still supporting another candidate as a second preference. Phrases like "wasted vote" and "spoiler candidate" are gone from the lexicon of democracy. In San Francisco, where IRV has been used for two City Council elections, negative campaigning has been reduced. Some rival candidates not only endorsed each other, they co-hosted events. (Candidates were vying to be their opponent's supporters' second choice.) IRV also increased turnout and is very popular with voters. Read more...

Oakland Tribune endorses Measure O

by Editorial Board, October 25, 2006 (Oakland Tribune)
On Nov. 7, Oakland residents will get the chance to vote on a measure that will save the city more than $400,000 every two years, probably increase voter turnout and reduce the time candidates can go negative on each other. For us, deciding to endorse Measure O was as simple as counting 1-2-3. Read more...

Elections bring out coastal differences

by Brian Beckley, October 25th 2006 (Enumclaw Courier-Herald)
Voters in Pierce County have a chance to do something truly progressive, changing voting forever in the county and getting as close to the the beloved but unconstitutional "blanket primary" the state was forced to abandon a few years back. A proposed amendment to the Pierce County Charter is proposing for all county candidates a system known as Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), a court-tested method that eliminates entirely the need for a primary. Read more...

Instant runoff voting can solve primary problem for counties

by Richard Anderson-Connolly, October 6, 2006. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Be on the lookout -- the solution to the "primary" problem may soon be coming up I-5 to Seattle. But not from Olympia. Tacoma, actually Pierce County, is set to become the state leader in voting reform. The solution is Pierce County Charter Amendment 3. If passed by the voters Nov. 7, we would eliminate the pick-a-party primary and instead use instant-runoff voting (IRV) at the general election. Read more...

Instant runoff voting would improve Pierce County elections

by Lyz Kurnitz-Thurlow, September 3, 2006. (The News Tribune in Tacoma, WA)
IRV offers a better solution to the primary problem. It gives voters the choices they want, protects parties' control over who appears on the ballot, addresses the legal shortcomings of the blanket and top-two primaries and reduces election administration and campaign costs by requiring only one election instead of two. There may not be a perfect election system, but one that does all that certainly comes closer. Read more...

JOHN RUSSO: Instant runoff voting is right way to go for Oakland

by Oakland City Attorney John Russo, July 24, 2006
The Oakland City Council had the wisdom and foresight to realize instant runoff voting is an essential first step on the road back to a healthy democracy. Read more ...