Why Use IRV
|
How Does IRV Work
|
Who Uses IRV
|
Who Supports IRV
|
Instant runoffs: They love 'em in Carolina
24 October 2007
By Rick Barry
On Nov. 6, when City of Sarasota voters get to choose whether they want to eliminate low-turnout runoff elections for city commission races, they can look to North Carolina's experience in a test there of a system that has been adopted in a half-dozen U.S. locales from Massachusetts to California, as well as nationwide in Australia and Ireland.
North Carolina's state legislature and elections board examined the practice carefully before recommending a 10-location test in local elections that began this month, and the county elections boards approved it, too, before allowing a test in their jurisdictions. The North Carolina League of Women voters also endorsed it.
The first place to hold an election with instant runoff voting was Cary, a suburb of Raleigh, the capital. With a population of 123,00, Cary is in Wake County, which is also home to North Carolina State University and the state's famous high-tech Triangle Research Park.
In its Oct. 9 election, Cary's voters filled three town council seats, all of which had three or more candidates running, the minimum for IRV. The election worked smoothly according to local officials, and Council member Erv Portman said he asked voters at the polls whether they had any trouble understanding the new system or filling out their ballots, which asked them to rank their favorite No. 1, then rank the other candidates in their order of preference -- if they wished.
"They looked at me as if to say, 'Are you kidding? This isn't exactly rocket science,' Portman said. "The anecdotal evidence is that people really liked it and weren't at all confused."
Portman was appointed earlier this year and elected to his own four-year term in that election.
In an "instant runoff," if the leading candidate in a multi-candidate race fails to get a majority, the second preference of the losing candidate's voters are added to the leading candidates' totals, and that continues until one of them has a majority of votes cast.
"Making a second or third choice never hurts your first choice," Cherie Poucher, director of Wake County's Board of Elections, assured voters before the election, "because they're not even looked at unless your first choice clearly loses."
It turned out an instant runoff was necessary in one Cary town council race, and it worked perfectly, Portman said. It didn't change the order of finish.
As a result, Poucher said, IRV is saving her from having to set up and staff a whole lot more precincts - in Cary -- for the Nov. 6 election, where there would be just one race on the ballot, and turnout would be dismal. "We have a professor [at N.C. State] who's analyzing exit polling data on people's reactions to [IRV]. We'll have those results soon."
Although eliminating a runoff election saved Cary about $60,000, Portman said town financial considerations was the least important reason why doing it that way proved a good move. It also saved voters the time and gas to return weeks later to vote again.
Portman said far more people vote in the general election, so candidates chosen in that election are more representative of the entire electorate. "When you have a runoff election, a minority of voters gets to chose the majority's candidate," he said.
And special interests have the most influence in runoff elections, because they have the ability to raise significant amounts of money in the second election's short, three-week run-up, he said. It also made it easier for candidates to budget their resources, knowing there will only be one election - and saved a whole second round of fundraising.
Instant runoffs also foil the ploy of recruiting spoiler candidates who drain support from a popular candidate by espousing similar views, allowing a candidate supported by a minority of voters to win. In IRV elections, the winner always earns a majority of voters' support.
Cary had that happen once. A third candidate entered a race in the last election cycle, then withdrew, but it was too late for his name to be removed from the ballot. "He still drew 4-5 percent of the vote,' Portman said, enough to change the outcome of the race.
Even the unintended consequences from the IRV method were good, Portman said.
Candidates listened more to their constituents. "Where before, if a voter told you he was voting for another candidate, you were likely to just walk away. But with an instant runoff, you stay and keep the communication going. You want that person to choose you as their second choice."
And that same consideration made the entire campaign process far more civil, he said, for the same reason. There weren't those last-minute personal attacks and nastiness, "because candidates didn't want to alienate any other candidate's supporters.'
"It was one election, on one day, with one winner,' Portman said. "People opposed to it will try to make it sound confusing, tell you some people get to vote twice, but it's not confusing' and no one votes twice. "It's just a side benefit that the town saves money."
The proposal has been endorsed by The St. Petersburg Times, The Tampa Tribune, The Bradenton Herald and the Pelican Press. Even if approved by voters, the IRV system will not be used until the state certifies new vote-counting software.
# # #