Instant Runoff Austin

Electoral reform update...

2005-04-26T13:45:00.000-05:00

There are two bills related to electoral reform scheduled for hearings tomorrow before the Texas House Elections Committee:
HB 1790 would modify state law to allow municipalities or ISDs to use instant runoff voting during elections should they so choose.
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/79r/billtext/HB01790I.HTM
HB 2056 increases access to voter registration resources at high schools and universities.
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/79r/billtext/HB02056I.HTM
Interested in testifying in favor of either (or both) of these bills at the hearing tomorrow evening (Wednesday, April 27th)? Let me know...thanks!

House IRV Bill Filed

2005-03-01T16:34:00.000-06:00

We now have a House Bill filed as well. The text for HB 1790 is available online:

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlo/79r/billtext/HB01790I.HTM

Please let us know if you're interested in helping out with lobbying efforts.

01/24 IRV Update

2005-01-24T08:11:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!

Good news: State Representative Gonzalo Barrientos has introduced legislation to allow for instant runoff voting in some Texas elections. The text of Senate Bill 197 (as introduced) is available here. We'll be meeting this week to discuss next steps - please stay tuned if you're interested.

IRV advocates may also want to check out the new report (PDF) "Evaluation of San Francisco’s First Ranked Choice Voting Election" from the folks a FairVote.org.

BC-STV

2004-12-21T11:15:00.000-06:00

The Citizen's Assembly of British Columbia has put together a great flash movie detailing their single-transferable vote (STV) system: View Flash Movie

Via Democracy Advocates Network

Electoral Reform Updates

2004-12-16T08:24:00.000-06:00

The National Voting Rights Institute has a website that provides updates on their role in the Ohio recount here.
Arlington, MA State Representative Jay Kaufman has filed legistlation for IRV.
Several bills requiring a paper audit trail for electronic voting machines have been pre-filed for the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature, including SB 94 (Shapleigh) and HB 166 (Pena). HB 56 (Denny) would provide criminal penalties for tampering with electronic voting machines.

Instant Runoff Austin will hold a brief brainstorming meeting this Saturday, December 18th, at Quack's in Hyde Park at 2:30pm. Please email Sarah if you need more information - we hope to see you there!

Democracy Advocates Network

2004-11-20T11:59:00.000-06:00

Instant Runoff Austin is proud to be the newest contributor to the Democracy Advocates Network blog. Stop by to learn more about movements like ours going on in Davis, California, New York state, and beyond. Thanks to Dan Johnson-Weinberger for building our network!

Salon on Electoral Reform

2004-11-18T11:24:00.000-06:00

Salon (subscription required) has a good piece on electoral reform:

Before the election, many people -- people like Lockshin -- felt irrelevant with respect to politics in America. Now, after the election, many Americans are distressed by the results. Why not channel this despair into something productive for the future? asks Rodriguez-Taseff. Why not work to reform the abysmal American electoral system?

Austin IRV Update

2004-11-18T09:01:00.000-06:00

For the next couple of weeks, we're concentrating on building a network of support locally and nationally. Thus far, we've been in touch with the folks at The Center for Voting and Democracy, InstantRunoff.com, the Travis County Green Party, Independent Texans, and numerous individuals.

We need your help to expand our reach. Please sign up for our email list if you haven't already done so and let us know if there are any other groups we should get in touch with.

Thanks for your continued support!

Lessons from a Canadian experiment in democracy

2004-11-18T08:54:00.000-06:00

Here's a fascinating article about an electoral reform initiative taking place among our northern neighbors:

In 2003, the B.C. government established a Citizens' Assembly, made up of 160 randomly selected citizens — one man and one woman from each electoral district, plus two at-large Aboriginal members. On Oct. 24, the assembly reached an important milestone in its historic experiment by voting 146-7 to recommend replacing the current system with a "single transferable vote" model, which lets voters rank candidates within multimember districts. If the B.C. electorate approves this new model in May, the provincial government will make it law.

The assembly's plan emerged from months of deliberation and hearings (which are accessible online at www.citizensassembly.bc.ca). The plan deftly addresses the most contentious issues regarding B.C. elections...

Via the Seattle Times.

Ann Arbor Maybe Next

2004-11-16T09:48:00.000-06:00

Building on the success of the IRV bill in Ferndale, Michigan's electoral reform activists are now setting their sites on larger targets:

In Michigan, it thrilled a tiny group of reformers, who include liberal Green Party regulars who hold vegetarian potlucks in Ferndale and conservative Libertarians in outstate Michigan. They want to change what they say is a moribund process that re-elects incumbents with numbing regularity.

Now, this far-flung coalition wants other Michiganders to adopt the system, which lets voters rank choices instead of casting a single vote in a given race. In Ferndale, the new voting process could apply to races for mayor and City Council as soon as November 2005, said City Clerk Karen Pedro.

Behind Ferndale's approval were four political mavericks who used old-fashioned signs and door-to-door chats. Now they're loading up computer Web sites -- like their own, www.firv.org -- and sending mass e-mails to link supporters in a dozen communities of southeast Michigan, said Brian Wilgenbusch, 27, of Oak Park.

"Our next step is deciding where to go next," said Wilgenbusch, a General Motors Corp. environmental engineer. His choice? Ann Arbor.

Kathryn Bruner, 25, of Ferndale, a Green Party member attending law school, said the group's ultimate goal "is to take this to a higher level, to the state someday."

Why IRV?

2004-11-11T09:39:00.000-06:00

The Center for Voting and Democracy notes that instant runoff voting offers the following advantages:

Ensures majority rule, in contrast to plurality voting.
Saves money compared to costly two-round runoff elections, which often have low voter turnout.
Increases voter turnout by giving voters better choices. Experience around the world shows that voter turnout goes up when voters have a wider range of choices.
Promotes positive, issue-based campaigns because candidates will seek 2nd and 3rd choice votes.
Creates a clearer mandate for a winning candidate’s agenda, giving better direction for policy-making.
Solves the problem of groupings of voters splitting their votes among similar candidates, which allows a candidate with only minority support to win.
Minimizes "wasted" votes, votes that don’t help elect a winner. To the fullest extent possible, your vote will contribute to electing a candidate that you like.

Perhaps most relevant to the average American, IRV eliminates the "spoiler" effect of third party candidates in competitive races - think Ross Perot in 1992 and Ralph Nader in 2000.

FERNDALE, MI VOTERS PASS PROPOSAL TO AUTHORIZE INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING

2004-11-10T12:06:00.000-06:00

Good news from Ferndale, Michigan:

FERNDALE, MI VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY PASS PROPOSAL B TO AUTHORIZE INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING (IRV)

Ferndale, MI – November 2, 2004 – Proposal B on Ferndale, Michigan's ballot passed overwhelmingly today by a margin of 6,522 (69.75%) to 2,828 (30.25%). The proposal amends Ferndale's city charter to provide for election of the mayor and City Council through the use of an Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) system pending the availability and purchase of compatible software and approval of the equipment by the Ferndale Election Commission...

Visit their site to learn more about how local residents ran a successful campaign to implement IRV. Congrats to Ferndale for Instant Runoff Voting!

So, what is IRV anyway?

2004-11-05T16:14:00.000-06:00

Not familiar with instant runoff voting or a little unclear how it works? Check out this great animated demonstration.

Today's IRV News

2004-11-05T16:03:00.000-06:00

The Instant Runoff

IT PROBABLY only surprises a handful of residents that, three days after the polls closed, San Francisco is still unable to certify its ballots and determine who won the election.

Given the city's history of election irregularities -- including shortages of ballots at polling places, ballot-box lids floating in the bay, state probes over alleged ballot tampering and inaccurate counts -- perhaps it was just wistful to expect an election here without a hitch or a long wait for results.

Now, apparently, there is a bug in the software specifically designed to showcase the city's inaugural, highly anticipated instant-runoff election...

Electoral Aftermath

The tabulation of votes in the city's first ranked-choice election was brought to a halt Wednesday because the computer program used to carry out the calculations wasn't written with such a large turnout in mind, said Lou Dedirer, of Election Systems and Software, the Omaha, Neb., company that sold San Francisco the system...

Taking democracy a step further

In the past few months, Americans have focused on different ways voters would cast ballots on Tuesday - from punch-cards, paper ballots, to the new electronic voting systems. Despite differences in the voting machinery, the fundamental voting method was the same, allowing voters to make one choice per elected office.

But San Francisco became the first city in the country to implement a new form of voting on Tuesday, called Instant Runoff Voting...

Greens Get Smattering of Votes

“This campaign has always been about building and growing the Green Party, and that’s just what we’ve succeeded in doing,” Cobb said. “We’ve registered more Green voters, we’ve boosted local campaigns, we’ve garnered fantastic media coverage. and we’ve put instant runoff voting in the forefront as a solution for the spoiler voting dynamic...”

A Brief History of IRV in Austin

2004-11-04T08:37:00.000-06:00

Instant runoff voting is hardly a new issue in Austin. Local activists have been advocating moving City of Austin elections to an IRV system for nearly a decade, but the movement has made its most serious progress in the past three years.

Moving Austin to an instant runoff voting system would require an amending our city charter, a process which requires voter approval. In 2001, local citizens' groups including Clean Campaigns for Austin began gathering signatures in order to petition the City of Austin to place IRV on the ballot. However, in a June 23, 2001 letter to the city, Texas Secretary of State Henry Cuellar "informed the city's law department that, in his opinion, such a practice would be illegal under state law." The petition drive came to an abrupt halt pending a final legal decision.

State Representative Elliot Naishtat contacted the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to seek a formal opinion. The Center for Voting and Democracy filed an amicus brief in support of IRV. Unfortunately, OAG's opinion made it clear that IRV could not be implemented in any Texas municipality without changes to state law. While the OAG's decision maybe more politically motivated than true to the spirit of the law, activists have - thus far - not chosen to challenge the opinion.

Glen Maxey had tried to pass a bill authorizing IRV in 1999 but failed. During the 78th session of the Texas Legislature in 2003, House Bill 1362, House Joint Resolution 41, and Senate Bill 135 were introduced to eliminate barriers in state law to implementing IRV. Unfortunately, these bills never made it out of committee.

As the next session of the Texas Legislature approaches this January, we find ourselves in a better position to push for IRV in 2005. Redistricting and the budget crisis of 2002 are behind us. The Austin electorate is highly energized, engaged and better organized than in the past. Futhermore, the competitive City Council races anticipated next spring offer another exciting opportunity to draw the public's attention to the value of IRV. In sum, if Austin residents rally around instant runoff voting, our chances of passing the necessary changes to state and local law look very promising.

So what can you do to help? This is a 100% grassroots effort - anything you can think of to start preparing for the upcoming legislative session is helpful. Use the comments section of this blog to throw out your ideas and provide feedback to others or join a conversation on our email list. No idea is too crazy or far-fetched. Get to work!

Today's IRV News

2004-11-03T08:38:00.000-06:00

New vote -- it's a go: Premiere of ranked-choice voting method mostly gets a thumbs-up -- few glitches

The presidential race may have been decided in the battleground states in the East and Midwest, but another national spotlight was aimed at San Francisco's election Tuesday with the premiere of a new ranked-choice voting to mixed reviews...

Larrick's poor showing leaves Greens' future uncertain

“So many people told me they have to vote one party to prevent another evil party’s winning,” he said.

So Larrick said he is going to lobby to change the Electoral College to an instant runoff voting system in which people could rank the candidates, and thereby vote for who they really liked.

Today's IRV News

2004-11-02T00:03:00.000-06:00

S.F. takes lead with instant-runoff voting

On Nov. 2, San Francisco will embark on an innovation in democracy that has the rest of the nation taking notice: The city's voters will elect seven seats on the Board of Supervisors using a method called ranked-choice, or instant-runoff voting...

Instant runoff voting is the topic of forum

The League of Women Voters of the Oakland Area will sponsor a forum at 7 tonight for the residents of Ferndale to discuss Proposal B on the city's Nov. 2 ballot...

Not again! Time to demand a modern democracy

The 2000 presidential election was a slap in the face for a complacent nation. The utter failure of the fundamentals of our elections should have been a clarion call for change. Yet here we are in 2004, teetering on the precipice of an election that threatens to repeat nearly every flaw of four years ago...

America's Worst College

Walter Dellinger is a brilliant legal scholar, and he's always interesting. What's most interesting about his latest Slate piece, however, is the window it may give us into what Kerry partisans are thinking right now about the Electoral College...

Instant runoff: rethinking the dynamics of election spoilers

Nobody likes a spoiler, whether it's someone sulking in the corner at a party, someone who ruins a movie by telling you the ending or someone perceived as throwing an election to another candidate...

Direct Elections Now!

No matter what the outcome of the November 2nd election, the abiding rulers of this country are We the People. The Framers of our Constitution made sure that all powers ultimately returned to We the People every few years so that we could decide anew who should be the captains of our ship of state...

Welcome to Instant Runoff Austin!

2004-11-01T15:07:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow, all eyes will be on the election contest between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry. But how many Americans will be forced to vote for their second- or even third-choice candidate because of a flawed electoral system?

Starting November 3rd, it's time to stop complaining about imperfect candidates and do something about it. Instant Runoff Austin is the home of a new movement to bring more choices and influence to voters in Austin, TX and beyond. Over the next few weeks, we'll be providing you with basic information about how Instant Runoff Voting (IRV, aka "ranked choice voting") works and how local citizens can get involved in our campaign. For the time being, please join our Yahoo! group to stay in touch and let me know if you'd like to sign on as a contributor to our blog.