ABQJournal Online » Instant Runoff Voting Could Run Off ‘Spoilers’ By John B. Anderson / Independent Candidate for President in 1980 on Thu, Nov 1, 2012

It’s time for major party leaders to stop playing chicken with voters and instead to uphold majority rule with a straightforward reform. Instant runoff voting (IRV) would allow Americans to achieve the basic goal of representative democracy – electing the candidate with the most support – while ending the concept of “spoiler.”

With IRV, voters get to rank candidates in order of choice: first, second and third. A candidate can win with a majority of first choices. If there’s no majority winner, the last place candidate is eliminated, and that candidate’s backers have their votes added to the totals of their compromise choice. This process continues until there’s a majority winner.

IRV is a proven voting method. It’s used to elect Ireland’s president, London’s mayor and Australia’s House of Representatives. American cities using IRV include Oakland, Calif.; San Francisco; Minneapolis; St. Paul, Minn.; and Portland, Maine. New voting machines are making IRV all the easier to implement.

ABQJournal Online » Instant Runoff Voting Could Run Off ‘Spoilers’