[Election-Methods] RELEASE: Instant Runoff Voting (Chris Benham)

[Jonathan Lundell]

On Jul 5, 2008, at 6:13 AM, James Gilmour wrote:

> Abd ul-Rahman Lomax > Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 7:19 PM
>> But, in the United States, where I live, IRV
>> isn't replacing pure FPTP. It's replacing Top Two
>> Runoff (TTR). And it is pretty clear to me that
>> TTR is superior in just about every way,
>
> I suspect all such judgements must in the end be matters of opinion,  
> but the French Presidential election of 2002 shows the major
> failing of Top-Two Run-Off.  I think many commentators would take  
> the view that IRV would have been superior to TTRO in that
> election.
>
> Had that election been by Exhaustive Ballot (eliminating one  
> candidate in each round) or by IRV, I am fairly sure that the final
> contest would not have been between Chirac and Le Pen.  It is also  
> reasonable to suggest that, in such circumstances, the eventual
> winner would not have been Chirac, but a candidate much more  
> representative of the voters.  The implications of a different result
> for French politics during the subsequent five years would be pure  
> speculation on my part, so I'll leave it there.

An additional word on IRV vs TTR in San Francisco.

One of the main arguments for moving from TTR to IRV in SF was the  
extremely low turnout in runoff elections--I suppose that's the TTR  
equivalent of massive ballot truncation. I don't have the figures at  
hand, but turnout for SF runoffs has been laughably low.

The limitation to three rankings is a function of the existing mark- 
sense voting equipment. Presumably this limitation will be addressed  
in time.

While SF IRV elections are nominally non-partisan, there are  
effectively three (sometimes four) parties: business-oriented  
Democrats, progressive Democrats, Greens, and from time to time  
Republicans. The boundaries are fuzzy, and coalitions are fluid. With,  
as Abd points out, as many as 22 candidates on the ballot, this  
environment seems far from ideal for TTR.