[EM] Yahoo IRV email lists

[Bart Ingles]

LAYTON Craig wrote:
> 
> Interesting. The obsession with having a majority might be resulting in bad
> legislation;
> 
> "(d) If the last remaining candidate did not receive a majority of the votes
> cast, excluding blank and spoiled votes, the chief election officer shall
> prepare a report of no election."
> 
> My experience with American legislation is decidedly limited, but this
> sounds a bit dodgy.  The law provides a number of ways for ballots to be
> exhausted, so it seems to me that it's reasonably likely to happen.  Does
> anyone know what happens when there is a "report of no election"?


I don't know -- maybe they have a runoff.  :)

Seems to me that something similar happened in Hawaii a couple of years
ago (or was it Guam?), when there was a tie vote and nobody could agree
on whether a runoff election was required.  I forget which way the
lawsuit turned out.


> It also seems to be a disturbing contradiction to provide a special rule to
> decide between the last two remaining (tied) candidates, when the candidate
> winning the tie-breaker will never have a majority of votes cast, and
> therefore will never win the election.