The New York Times published this story on September 27, about the state law that requires run-off primaries in New York city, if the person who placed first in the first primary failed to receive at least 40% of the vote. The article predicts that fewer than 10% of registered Democrats will vote in the September 29 run-off primary for Public Advocate, yet the run-off will cost $15,000,000 in taxpayer funds. Even though the article is moderately long, it does not mention the idea that the city use Instant Runoff Voting. UPDATE: the article does mention IRV toward the end.
P.R. and A.V.
ONE election ONLY.
This election reform stuff AIN’T atomic physics — requiring 10,000 years of learning.
Good catch, Richard, except that the article DOES mention instant runoff voting toward the end, pointing out that “Some government watchdog advocates suggest that instead of a runoff, New York could adopt a preferential-voting, or instant runoff, system in the primary.”
It’s been also brought up in good blogposts by the Citizens Union, such as here:
http://gothamist.com/2009/09/28/runoff_elections_costing_you_144_mi.php
Thanks, Rob.
Of course the obvious solution is to use Top 2.