[EM] letter to Salon.com

[Alex Small]

In a recent article on salon.com, IRV is mentioned as an issue where Dems
and Greens can collaborate:  Dems don't have to worry about spoilers,
Greens don't have to worry about the "wasted vote syndrome."  Below is my
reply.  It's a bit long, but Salon often prints long letters.  Hopefully
they'll print it.

Editor-

Michelle Goldberg argues, quite correctly, that Democrats and Greens
should promote alternative voting methods to end the "spoiler problem." 
She errs, however, in recommending Instant Runoff Voting.  This method
allows voters to rank the candidates and uses the rankings submitted to
hold a runoff election if no candidate has a majority, rather than holding
a second election.

Sadly, Instant Runoff is still plagued by the spoiler problem.  If the
Green candidate has no chance against the Republican, but the Democrat
does, dividing liberal voters between two candidates could send the doomed
Green into the second round rather than the conquering Democrat. 
Something akin to this happened in France's recent Presidential election.

Indeed, a treacherous front-runner could exploit this, sending some of his
supporters to vote for the extremist whom he can beat.  The moderate will
be eliminated, and the conniver will win.

A better solution is Approval Voting:  Simply indicate yes or no for each
candidate on the ballot, and the most approved candidate wins.  The winner
is guaranteed to be the candidate with the broadest coalition of core
supporters, swing voters, and cross-over voters who also support other
candidates.  Approval Voting is also quite robust against spoilers and
treacherous manipulations.

Finally, Approval Voting requires NO NEW EQUIPMENT, unlike Instant Runoff.
 If you want a voting system that allows more parties to compete while
keeping matters simple and transparent, there's no better choice than
Approval Voting.


Alex Small


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