Election Day Rambling #1--Instant Runoff Voting

MC posted today on her dilemma about whether to vote for a third-party candidate for governor, and that got me thinking again about instant runoff voting (IRV). Lovely Daughter#1's first job after college was as an organizer for a Progressive Party candidate for governor in Vermont (running against Howard Dean no less). This candidate was eminently qualified in many ways, but because the Republican candidate was a nut-case (really--this was just after civil unions became legal, and she was vicious over that issue) people who might have supported the Progressive candidate were afraid to do so--the so-called spoiler effect. Likewise, people still argue about whether Al Gore might have won if Ralph Nader had not siphoned off some of the vote.

IRV is designed to address this by letting voters rank order their choices. If no candidate has a majority, the candidate getting the lowest number of votes is eliminated and the second choice on those ballots is then counted. This process continues until someone has a majority. A number of Vermont towns have endorsed this method of voting and Burlington, Vermont's largest city used it successfully in its last mayoral election.

I am not very politically active aside from voting and participating in an occasional demonstration. My inactivity stems in part from a feeling of futility, a feeling that I can't really have any effect on the system--not the most helpful attitude I realize. Perhaps working to promote IRV would be a way to work for what seems to me a positive change in our political system, one that would allow more diverse candidates to have a real place in our electoral system.