Can you hurt your preferred candidate by voting for him or her? With instant runoff voting, you can. This is the only election method in the US that has this defect.
A Minnesota Supreme Court said this about IRV:
"Instant runoff voting could lead to a situation where a voters vote for a particular candidate harms rather than helps that candidate."Because this was considered theoretical, the court did not block IRV in Minnesota. Later this year, in Aspen Colorado's first IRV election, some voters DID hurt their preferred candidate by ranking him first. That is why a federal lawsuit against IRV will be filed there.
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