Reply #23: PERHAPS IT'S FINALLY TIME FOR "IRV" VOTING?

[tbyg52]

IS IT TIME TO FINALLY FOLLOW THE PROCESS USED IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA & THE UNITED KINGDOM?

"Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)" is a voting system used for single-winner elections in which voters have one vote, but also rank or "list" all of the candidates on the ballot in order of preference, 1st place through last place. If no single candidate receives a majority of the #1 choice position, the candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated and that candidate's votes redistributed equally to the voters' next preferences among the remaining candidates. This process is repeated until one candidate has a majority of votes among the remaining candidates. The term "instant runoff" is used because IRV actually simulates a series of run-off elections tallied in election rounds."

IRV is called "Preferential Voting (PV)" in Australia, "Preferential Balloting (PB)" in Canada, "Alternative Voting (AV)" in the United Kingdom, and in some state elections in the US, is sometimes called "Ranked Choice Voting (RCV)". It has also been referred to as the "Hare System", after Thomas Hare, the inventor of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) now called IRV.

Robert's Rules of Order calls IRV "especially useful and fair in elections by mail if it is impractical or too costly to offer more than one election".

More:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/70580