Erin Durkin at the New York Daily News writes "New York City Council bill would replace runoff elections with ballots that rank candidates. The bill would replace the lengthy process of holding a runoff election would be traded for forms that voters would fill out ranking candidates, potentially saving the city $20 million and possibly being implemented as early as 2017."
A new New York City Council effort would eliminate costly and cumbersome runoff elections in favor of instant runoff voting (IRV) in which voters would rank candidates to choose their favored contender in a primary election.
Supporters say the new system could avoid the difficulties expected this year as the New York City Board of Elections warns that it won’t have time to reset new electronic voting machines in the two or three weeks between the September primary and the runoff expected if no candidate receives at least 40% of the vote. It could also save taxpayers about $20 million.
“This whole debate would all be unnecessary if we simply had instant runoff voting. We would save money, we would save time, we would save headaches,” said Councilman Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn), who is sponsoring the bill along with Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan).
Instant runoff voting has been used in cities like San Francisco, Oakland and Minneapolis.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
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