[EM] Instant Runoff/Approval

[LAYTON Craig]

The issues for electoral reform in a country with IRV already in place are a
bit different from the those with plurality.  For instance, Approval is not
really a workable proposal (not that I'd be disposed to proposing it,
anyway).  I'd like to hear what people think about the following possible
micro-reform (it only just occured to me, so I haven't modelled it or
anything);

Instant Runoff/Approval.  Number ONLY those candidates which you approve of,
starting at 1, and continuing using successive numbers.

Count up all the candidate's approval totals (every ballot which numbers
candidate A is worth one).  Eliminate all candidates except the two with the
most (approval) votes.  Conduct a head to head count based on the
preferences of all the ballots that number either candidate.

It is the kind of thing that people might actually go for here, but it might
be a waste of time - I generally support a straight push to proportional
representation (probably STV, as we already have it in use), which is more
achievable than in the US.  What's more, aside from the election of the
lower house, there are no single winner contests of any kind (save some
mayoral elections - but a lot of councils don't have directly elected mayors
anyway).