Organizers of the Maine initiative for instant-runoff voting for all federal and state office except President say they have over 45,000 signatures, and they expect to complete the petition by the January 12 deadline. Meeting that deadline means the issue would be on the ballot in November 2015. See this story. Thanks to Thomas MacMillan for the link.
This is very sad indeed because IRV will cement the two-party system. At least under plurality elections, a third alternative can win in random cases.
The 9th USA Parliament has been promoting pure proportional representation for 19 consecutive years and we promote ranked choice voting in multi-winner districts of two or more only. Won’t you join US?:
http://www.usparliament.org
I still say “Ranked Choice” is confusing to voters and they will most likely vote it down.
Why not a “Second Choice” style of ballot where the voter simply names his or her 2nd choice, and the two candidates getting the 1st and 2nd number of votes, then have the 2nd choice votes (from the defeated candidates) added to their total.
Florida, and a few other states used this for their Primary Elections many decades ago.
This way, it is easier for 3rd parties to convince voters in General Elections to vote for their candidates, when the voters know they can vote for a 3rd party candidate as their 1st choice, then vote for either the Democrat or Republican as their 2nd choice, and then they will know they have expressed how they really feel via the 3rd party candidate, but can also feel their vote has “not been wasted” when it helps elect the major party candidate they also support.
Don’t know why we don’t recommend “Second Choice” over “Ranked Choice.” Votes only have to be counted once. When you have, for example 7 candidates, and the votes have to be counted 7 times, there is always more room for gross error if not outright fraud.
IRV is FATAL for single offices.
34 L–M–R
33 R–M–L
16 M–L–R
16 M–R–L
99
With IRV, M loses.
L beats R 50-49
L STALIN clone, R HITLER clone, M Moderate Middle person
The EVIL IRV fanatics want more and more STALIN clones to get elected — and to claim mighty majority *mandates* for the STALIN agenda.
— but instead may get the HITLER agenda.
Note that M has a mere 99 of 99 votes in 1st and 2nd place.
Means ZERO to the EVIL IRV STALIN control freak folks.
—
P.R. and App.V. – pending Condorcet Head to Head math.
If Ogle’s against it, it’s a good idea, and IRV is a very good idea.