[Election-Methods] draft press release #2 re. my revised IRV flaws paper

[Kathy Dopp]

OK, after some thoughtful comments from Eve Roberson of CA, I toned
down and shorted the draft press release to about a page.   I'm really
terrible at writing press releases and wish that someone would edit it
for me (hint ;-)

How's this instead?


RELEASE:  Instant Runoff Voting - Not What It Seems

By The National Election Data Archive
Park City, UT June 16, 2008

Summary: After its report criticizing the increasingly popular instant
runoff voting method aroused cyberspace debates and flame wars last
week, the National Election Data Archive released a second version
"Realities Mar Instant Runoff Voting - 17 Flaws and 3 Benefits".

The National Election Data Archive, on June 9th, 2008 released a
report "15 Flaws and 3 Benefits of Instant Runoff Voting or Ranked
Choice Voting" that provoked criticism and comment on the Internet,
including a web page called "De-Bunking Kathy Dopp's 15 Flaws of
Instant Runoff Voting" by the organization Fair Vote. On the other
hand, computer scientists, voting system experts, and election methods
experts responded to the report by providing additional insight and
information on alternative voting methods, including the flaws of
instant runoff voting.

Instant runoff voting (IRV) is a method for counting "ranked choice"
ballots where each voter ranks the candidates – first choice, second
choice, etc.  The IRV counting process proceeds in "rounds" where the
candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated in each round and that
candidate's votes are reassigned to the remaining candidates using
voters' choices.  IRV sounds enticing to voters who can express their
preferences, but according to the new report, IRV does not solve the
problems it is promoted as solving and causes significant new
problems.

The National Election Data Archive recommends restoring verifiable
integrity to elections first before implementing alternative voting
methods, and reminds readers that not one U.S. State today utilizes
all the basic measures required to ensure fundamental election
integrity such as public access to election records, observable
post-election manual audits, ballot reconciliation, and public
oversight of ballot security.

The revised new report differentiates between the ballot style and the
counting method, discusses alternative voting methods, describes an
"IRV-like" solution that would solve some of IRV's counting problems,
and responds to Fair Vote's attempt to rebut the first version of the
report.

According to Kathy Dopp, the report's author, "Instant runoff voting
is a threat to the fairness, accuracy, timeliness, and economy of U.S.
elections. The U.S. needs to solve its existing voting system problems
and then carefully consider the options before adopting new voting
methods."

The full report "Realities Mar Instant Runoff Voting - 17 Flaws and 3
Benefits" is found on-line at
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/RCV-IRV/InstantRunoffVotingFlaws.pdf
This press release will be posted online at
http://electionarchive.org/ucvAnalysis/US/RCV-IRV/FlawsIRV-PressRelease-V2.pdf

Press Contact: Kathy Dopp 435-658-4657 kathy at electionarchive.org

The National Election Data Archive is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organized
for educational and scientific purposes of promoting fair and accurate
elections by researching, developing  and promoting methods and
procedures to detect voter disenfranchisement and vote count
inaccuracy.  Such methods include independent manual vote count
audits, exit poll discrepancy analysis, and the public release and
scientific analysis of election data along with public release of
election records necessary to verify the integrity of elections.