[EM] IRV vs. Plurality

[Dave Ketchum]

On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 19:05:17 EDT Dgamble997 at aol.com wrote in part:

> Bart Ingles wrote in part:
> 
>  >On the question of IRV vs Plurality, I would like to first point out
>  >that pure first-past-the-post is not really the norm for U.S.
>  >elections. For nonpartisan local elections, the question should really
>  >be IRV vs. Runoff. And for partisan state and federal elections, we
>  >generally have primary and general elections, which are similar in
>  >effect to runoffs.


For New York State the standard is partisan for all elections in the state 
except:
      By law, villages can choose nonpartisan.
      New York City is considering nonpartisan for city offices.
      School boards are in their own world - at least some are nonpartisan.

I question this emphasis on runoff.  It could be true for PARTS of the US, 
but I did not find the word in a quick search of New York State election 
law.  Also, within NYS, some cities, etc., do do runoffs.

Relating primaries to runoffs bothers me:
      A primary is an election within a party to decide which of competing 
candidates the party shall nominate for the general election.
           A party would not WANT to nominate competing candidates for the 
general election (assuming Plurality) - such could split the vote of party 
backers, thus improving the odds of some other party's candidate winning.
      A party COULD use a runoff to resolve primary results being too 
close to a tie.

> 
> David Gamble

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  Dave Ketchum   108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708   607-687-5026
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