[EM] Summary of IRV activity in the states and a comment on the EC.

[Douglas Greene]

Alaska: Initiative 99PRVT will appear on the Aug. 27 primary election 
ballot. The Division of Elections' (part of the Office of the Lieutenant 
Governor) site has no info on opponents to the initiative.

San Francisco: Proposition A will appear on the Mar. 5 primary election 
ballot. Alas, none of the arguments against it mention alternative 
voting systems to IRV.

Vermont: Bills to establish IRV are S. 94 and H. 175. H. 175 was 
referred to the Local Government committee on Feb. 1, 2001. S. 94 was 
referred to the Government Operations committee on Feb. 14. At least 
nineteen town meetings will vote in March on whether to endorse these bills.

Washington state: SB 6345 authorizes IRV as a local option. It was 
referred to the State and Local Government committee on Jan. 16. SB 6562 
implements IRV and was referred to the State and Local Government 
committee on Jan. 21. HB 2698 also implements IRV and was referred to 
the State Government committee on Jan. 24.

The digests for these bills say: "Finds that it is in the public 
interest to adopt a voting system in which all successful candidates 
would win by a majority vote rather than a plurality of effective votes 
and that allows voters to rank candidates according to preference. Finds 
that a system known as instant runoff voting (or IRV) best achieves that 
purpose."

How self-serving of them.

On the EC: I think that, rightly or wrongly, small states would oppose 
abolition of the EC, because of the perceived loss of voting power. But 
there's a solid case that the winner-take-all aspect of the EC in all 
states besides Maine and Nebraska would violate section 2 of the Voting 
Rights Act. Let me know if you want a reference to the law review article.

Doug