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Sunday, October 11, 2009

Open Letter to British on Instant Runoff Voting Virus - Why some US locales want to ditch it

Rob Richie has another blog up on Huffington Post pushing instant runoff voting, this time for Great Britain. Richie's blog is one of the few that blocks Huffington Post readers from posting comments. So we'll post our comments here and hopefully the Brits will see it.

British prime minister pledges national referendum on instant runoff voting - Poll shows support Rob Richie, Huffington Post

Instant runoff voting (IRV) is gaining support in the United States, particular as a means to replace runoff elections that double the costs of administering elections and running for office and that typically result in large disparities in turnout between rounds and sharply negative campaigns in the final runoff.

What Rob Richie doesn't tell Huffington Post readers is that IRV is losing support in the US as people wake up to the problems associated with it. Instant runoff voting is very controversial for good reason. Richie does not mention that communities that have actually used instant runoff voting have learned that it is not "as easy as 1-2-3" and has hidden expenses. Of the few places in the US that have recently tried IRV, actually used it in elections, not just adopted it - many have ditched it or are trying to ditch it. Also, in communities where both pros and cons of IRV were heard, the answer was NO to IRV, like in British Columbia.

See
Places that Have Ditched Instant Runoff Voting or are Moving to Ditch It
Aspen Colorado and Pierce County Washington both will have voters decide this November if they want to keep IRV. Aspen is seeing continued investigations and continued research on the election after the wrong software program was run the first time the ballots were counted. Pierce County is reconsidering after the majority of voters polled said they didn't like IRV, and the auditor said ditching IRV would save $600K. Cary, North Carolina tried IRV in 2007, and after several public hearings this year Cary ditched it and stuck with their original election method.


Learn more about problems with Instant Runoff Voting in the news here
Also read The Truth About Instant Runoff Voting - It Does Not Work As Advertised and Here is Proof

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