Many Americans are not aware that London has used Instant Runoff Voting in their mayoral elections since the creation of the elected office in 2000. In each of the three elections, the candidate who received a plurality in the first preference count ended up winning the election.

Also of interest is the fact that all leading candidates were strong opponents of the war in Iraq and of the UK “war on terror.”

Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson received 42.48% of the vote in the first-round count, and ultmately won with 53.2% in the final count. Incumbent Ken Livingstone received 36.38% in the first-round count, and received 46.8% in the final count. Livingstone was the nominee of the Labour Party, as he was in the 2004 election. However, he was originally elected in 2000 as an independent candidate.

In the first-round tally, the Green Party received 3.15% (compared to 2.9% in 2004) and the British National Party received 2.84% (compared to 3.0% in 2004). The UK Independent Party lost most of its support, getting only 0.91% compared to 6.0% in 2004.

Here are the details with all the candidates, for the three elections:

2008 Results
2004 Results
2000 Results

The May 2 issue of the Washington Post has this article about what legal scholars say about John McCain’s eligibility for the presidency, given that he was born in the Canal Zone in 1936. Thanks to Howard Bashman’s “How Appealing” law blog.

On May 2, 4 U.S. Senators introduced S.2959, which would require states to permit same-day voter registration in federal elections. The sponsors are Senators Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jon Tester of Montana, and Tom Harkin of Iowa. The four Senators all represent states that use same-day voter registration.