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Saturday, November 08, 2008

Instant Runoff Elections

(Now with correct spelling of the Democratic party. Surry.)

Oregon said no the measure for "open primaries". I was mixed on this
measure. I joined the Democratic party this year specifically to vote in
the primary. I have yet to drop my party affiliation, although I still
consider myself an independent. And in spite of the fact that I vote
Democratic nearly 100% because the few politicians I actually believe in
are Dems, and because the others tend to come across to me as the
better of bad choices.

I voted no on the measure for two reasons: I'd heard mixed reviews for
open primaries run in other locations, so on that count I decided to
be conservative by keeping the current closed primary. My ultimate
reason for a no vote: I am more interested in "instant runoff"
elections than "open primaries". I believe if we had passed this
measure then the odds of getting a measure for instant runoff passed
in the next few years would be significantly lower.

From Blue Oregon, "it's time for instant runoff"...

http://www.blueoregon.com/2008/11/its-time-for-in.html

Instant runoff seems to provide a means of encouraging "third party"
candidates, and of supporting voting for those candidates without
"wasting" a vote.

3 comments:

Jason Yip said...

I prefer the name preference voting as it seems clearer what it is.

This is what Australia uses.

Anonymous said...

As a longtime member of the Democratic Party, would you mind correctly spelling our name?

Anonymous said...

Referring to the method as the 'Single Transfer(r)able Vote' is also a bit clearer because it states the mechanism at work behind the method and PR-STV is the same as IRV for single seat elections.

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Portland, Oregon, United States
I'm usually writing from my favorite location on the planet, the pacific northwest of the u.s. I write for myself only and unless otherwise specified my posts here should not be taken as representing an official position of my employer. Contact me at my gee mail account, username patrickdlogan.