Easy as 1-2-3
Instant runoff voting (IRV) is one type of
"ranked voting". Voters simply rank each candidate in order of
preference instead of voting for only their first-choice candidate. That's all
voters have to do. The rest is done by the vote counters. The basic rules are:
- A candidate needs over 50% of the votes to
win.
- If no candidate gets over 50%, eliminate
the candidate with the fewest votes and have an immediate runoff count among
all remaining candidates.
- Repeat step 2 until somebody gets over 50%
of the votes.
Benefits of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)
Casting a single IRV ballot replaces a
non-IRV general election and any needed runoffs.
Candidates win some non-IRV elections with
less than 50% of the votes just by getting more votes than their opponents. Two
candidates may be considered the "real" contenders with independent
or third-party candidates considered "vote-stealing spoilers". Voters
may feel like a vote for one of the "other" candidates is wasted and
could throw the election to the candidate they want least. With IRV, a winning
candidate always needs over 50% of the votes. Votes aren't "wasted"
because IRV vote counts also consider second-choice votes, and winners have
more support since they win with over 50% of the vote.
Candidates compete for second-choice votes as
well as first-choice votes. They risk losing second-choice votes by trashing
opponents in a negative campaign.
Governments save money by eliminating runoff
elections, and candidates need less money to campaign.
Voters have more options and can vote for the
candidate they really want which encourages more enthusiastic participation.
How Instant Is It?
There may be several rounds of vote counts,
based on the way voters rank each candidate. If no candidate receives over 50%
of the first-choice votes, it triggers an immediate recount. Since voters
ranked all candidates in order of preference, everyone's second choice is clear
and votes can be immediately recounted rather than having a whole new election.
The next round of vote counting drops the candidate with the fewest
first-choice votes. Everyone who voted for the remaining candidates as their
first choice has their first-choice votes counted as before. Everyone who voted
for the now-eliminated candidate has their second-choice vote added to the
other votes. Each voter still has one vote, and there are the same number of
total votes in each round of vote counts.
If there are more than three candidates, and
there's still no winner after the second round of counting, once again the
candidate with the fewest votes gets eliminated and there's another immediate
count using second-choice or third-choice votes. Even with multiple candidates
and several consecutive vote counts, there can still be a winner by the next
day.
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