Weblog
11/02/02 11:37 AM: Instant Run-off Voting
Ever since Ralph Nader informed me about this election system, I have been a firm supporter of it. Now, you can read this article that explains it from a mathematics point of view. This explains the problems with our current election system, and how plurality voting can cause strange outcomes. Also, they suggest, our system does not really represent the voice of the people.
Here’s one interesting part of the article:
For instance, the paradoxical outcome of the Florida race might have been avoided under the instant runoff, which is advocated by the Center for Voting and Democracy in Takoma Park, Md. In that system, voters rank the candidates, then the candidate with the fewest first-place votes is dropped. That candidate is erased from the voters’ preference lists, and ballots of voters who had placed him first are converted into votes for their second choice. From the remaining candidates, once again the one with the fewest first-place votes is dropped. When only two candidates remain, the one with more top votes wins. Since voters communicate their entire ranking when they vote, there’s no need to hold repeated elections. In Florida, Nader would probably have been eliminated in an instant runoff, most of his votes converted into votes for Gore.
An instant runoff also reduces the dangers inherent in an election with many candidates. In the French election, most of the voters who selected one of the weaker candidates probably preferred Chirac or the then
