Instant runoff voting earned landslide support on ballots across the country. A whopping 77% of voters in Aspen (CO) voted to move to instant runoff voting. Sarasota (FL) voters topped that margin, voting 78% for IRV and prompting the Sarasota Herald Tribune to call the city “a model of election reform.”
In a particularly important election for next year, 65% of voters in Pierce County (WA) voted on a charter amendment to keep IRV on track for the hotly contested 2008 county executive race.
In rural western Washington, voters in Clallam County narrowly rejected establishing IRV as an option in their charter. Several cities also held ranked voting elections.
San Francisco held its fourth IRV election overall, and its first for mayor, with first-round winners in three citywide races.
Takoma Park (MD) smoothly held its first IRV election for mayor, with nary a single spoiled ballot out of more than 1,000 cast.
The city of Hendersonville (NC), following in the footsteps of Cary (NC) in using IRV this fall, had a strong first IRV election for two city council seats. As one voter put it, “There’s nothing to it.”
As a bonus, a graduate student in Cambridge (MA) won a city council seat in an upset victory under the choice voting system of proportional voting, now in its seventh decade of use.
All this good news comes at a particularly fortuitous time as FairVote hosts Claim Democracy 2007 this weekend at the University of the District of Columbia, a major pro-democracy conference drawing hundreds of reformers from across America, and celebrates a decade and a half of reform with its 15th Anniversary Gala at Union Station.
Use the above link for more information about the conference.
Michael H. Drucker
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