Instant Runoff Voting

Minneapolis introduced instant-runnoff voting (IRV) at the election last Tuesday. There are a variety of opinions on the voting system. One "concerned" constituent, David Dingee, wrote to the Star Tribune and had the following letter published:

After having my first experience with instant-runoff voting (IRV) in Minneapolis on Tuesday, I strongly suggest that suburban voters do not support this procedure.

I can't wait until 2010 when, due to the amount of time it will take to fill ballots out and all the added confusion it will cause, outrageous lines form at the polls.

It appears that all IRV does is give fringe parties an opportunity to get votes that they never would have under the traditional voting process. In Minneapolis, the first candidate for mayor listed was from the "Is Awesome Party." Clearly, IRV will encourage more odd parties and bizarre candidates.

Politics is scary enough; let's not make it worse.

I disagree with Mr. Dingee. IRV is meant to give more parties a voice. You don't have to fear voting for a fringe character because you can choose a more popular fellow with the second or third option.

If Mr. Dingee was truly a reader of the Star Tribune and not just a citizen seeking a place to vent, he may recall an article by Jon Tevlin on October 14, 2009, titled "22-year-old's mayoral bid rests totally on awesomeness."

Among the 11 people who want to be mayor of Minneapolis are three people who claim Democratic Farmer-Labor allegiances, one Socialist Worker's Party candidate, a Libertarian and a man from something called the Edgertonite Party, which believes in communism, that the region should secede from the United States and that Laura Ingalls Wilder is God.

Electoral politics in Minnesota have never been dull.

Then there is the fledgling candidacy of one Joey Lombard, a 22-year-old unemployed musician who lists his "political party or principle" as "Is Awesome."
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I mentioned that my colleague pointed out candidates were allowed three words for their political party name or principle, and that Lombard seemed to have missed the opportunity to belong to the "Is Totally Awesome" party.

"Arggggggggh, man!" said Lombard, sounding genuinely upset. "I didn't even think of that."
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Lombard has promised to keep his campaign expenses under $100. "It's all word-of-mouth," he said. When Lombard sent me an e-mail, he signed it, "Joey Lombard, practically the mayor."

I asked Lombard whether he would promise that if he got elected, he would not run for governor while in office.

"Absolutely," he said.

Politics can use some creativity. It has become a two party system, and the Republicans and Democrats want to draw a clear line between each other. But a political map of the United States shows primarily purple, centrist beliefs across all regions of the country.

I do have some hesitation about IRV. Consider the 2000 presidential election where Bush took 47.9% of the popular vote to Gore's 48.4%. (But Bush received more electoral votes. Remember Florida, Supreme Court, and "hanging chads"?) Neither candidate reached the required 50% plus one vote plateau. The lowest vote getter would be removed, and their second choices would be added to the pot. The process continues until someone reaches a majority vote. They say IRV allows a person to freely vote for a minor candidate without fear of casting a vote that doesn't count. Many say that Nader took away votes from Gore. However, Nader took 2.7% of the votes (3rd highest). Therefore, Nader ballots would be the last option to count.

Because it was a tight race between two candidates, those "other" candidates combined for just 1% of the total vote. Even if Gore took all of the additional votes prior to including the Nader ballots, he would have been short of 50%.

In IRV, eventually someone receives enough votes to be declared an outright winner. Wouldn't you rather have that than Jesse Ventura winning Minnesota's gubernatorial election in 1998 with just 36.99% of the votes?

To comment on Ventura's time in office would be another post for another day.