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Monday, June 8, 2009

Places that Have Ditched Instant Runoff Voting or are Moving to Ditch It

THESE JURISDICTIONS ARE MOVING TO DITCH INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING OR HAVE ALREADY DITCHED IT:

*UPDATED ON May 30, 2010*

MOVING TO DITCH, ASPEN COLORADO.
Aspen Instant Runoff Voting--Up for Repeal in November 2010
Aspen to reconsider Instant Runoff Voting this November - City Council cite problems with May election (blog) Aspen voters to vote on how they vote — again Wednesday, July 22, 2009 Carolyn Sackariason The Aspen Times Aspen, CO Colorado (news article). Also see Aspen Election Review May 5 2009 IRV single ballot audit unit

DITCHED. *Update. Burlington rejects instant runoff voting March 3, 2010 ...“a system which, on paper, persuaded people to give it a try but in reality resulted in a very confusing and poor system.” Repeal IRV reports that "2005/2010 Voter disapproval of IRV increased in every ward in the city"
MOVING TO DITCH. BURLINGTON VT. Voters in Burlington are pushing to get IRV repealed. There is a petition drive to get the repealing of IRV on the next possible ballot. WCAX News.

DITCHED. *Update. ON NOV 3, 2009. PIERCE COUNTY WASHINGTON.Majority of Pierce County voters reject Instant Runoff Voting on Nov 3 Instant runoff voting was rejected by an overwhelming majority of Pierce County Washington Voters. 44,145 of 64,106 voters said yes to ditching instant runoff voting, also called ranked choice voting. That is 71.76% for eliminating IRV and 28.24% who wanted to keep IRV. Pierce voters ditch instant runoff voting - save $500K for taxpayers immediately
MOVING TO DITCH. PIERCE COUNTY WASHINGTON. The voters will get to reconsider this issue in November. 63% of Pierce County WA voters don't like Ranked Choice Voting. That is 56,751 out of 90,738 Pierce County voters who answered a questionnaire included with their ballots that asked, “Did you like this new Ranked Choice Voting method?” December 7, 2008 The News Tribute. The county could save $600,000 if they scrapped instant runoff voting now.

DITCHED. BRITISH COLUMBIA (2ND TIME) 61% of the voters gave a thumbs down for STV, Single Transferrable Vote, a ranking method in British Columbia. May 12, 2009.

DITCHED. CARY NORTH CAROLINA Cary North Carolina rejected a second go at IRV, voted to keep current election method WRAL News Apr. 30 2009 Cary, N.C. — The Cary Town Council voted against a proposal Thursday to change the current election method. WRAL News and Protect NC Elections Stop IRV Blog . Also see Cary NC tries IRV, then says ‘no more’

DITCHED. GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY. February 21, 2009 Georgetown University ditches Instant Runoff Voting - cites problems The Hoya and No IRV in NC Blog

Instant runoff voting was invented in 1870 by American architect William Robert Ware yet has not been widely adopted. IRV has also been rejected by a few jurisdictions that used it. Perhaps the problem is that IRV is loaded with the potential for perverse outcomes and is difficult to count in a transparent fashion (since it it not additive and votes are redistributed).