| History And Use Of Instant-runoff Voting |
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IRV is also used for municipal elections in various places in Australia, the United States, and New Zealand . Because of its relationship to the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, IRV is used for by-elections in a some jurisdictions that use STV for ordinary parliamentary elections, such as the Republic Of Ireland . IRV is known by different names in the various countries in which it is used. It is also known as the 'Alternative Vote', 'Ranked Choice Voting', 'Preferential Voting', and the 'Hare system'. The last three of these names may be misleading, because IRV is only one of a number of forms of Preferential Voting systems, and because the precise system known as 'instant-runoff voting' was invented by Ware rather than Thomas Hare . HISTORY Instant-runoff voting is based on the Single Transferable Vote Electoral System , invented independently by Thomas Hare in 1857 and Carl Andrae in 1855 . Unlike IRV, the Single Transferable Vote was designed as form of Proportional Representation involving multi-seat Constituencies , and today STV is used in a number of countries, including Australia, the Republic of Ireland and Malta . When William Robert Ware invented IRV he apparently simply applied the Single Transferable Vote system to single winner elections. He was not a mathematician and thus never subjected his election method to any rigorous analysis. At the same time as STV was spreading through Australia in the Nineteenth Century IRV began to be introduced. IRV was adopted for the Australian House of Representatives in 1918 and has been used to elect the President of Ireland since the office came into being in 1937 . It was introduced in Fiji in 1999 . SIMILAR SYSTEMS There are a number of systems similar to IRV that only permit the voter to rank a certain number of candidates, or for two rounds of counting. A two count variant known as the Contingent Vote was used in Queensland in Australia from 1892 to 1942 . In mayoral elections in the United Kingdom the Supplementary Vote (SV) is used; under SV voters only express a first and a second choice. Under the Sri Lankan System , used to elect the President Of Sri Lanka , voters express only three preferences. This is also the case with elections to the National Parliament Of Papua New Guinea , held under the Limited Preferential Vote . USE BY COUNTRY Canada In the past IRV has been used in the Canadian state of British Columbia . Under the name 'preferential' or 'elimination ballot', it was used in the General Election Of 1952 and the General Election Of 1953 . IRV was initially brought in by the governing coalition consisting of the Liberal and Conservative Parties to try to prevent a left-wing government under the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation as voters could then choose one of the governing parties as their first choice and the other as their second choice. However, IRV backfired on the Liberals and Conservatives when many CCF supporters chose the relatively unknown Social Credit Party , a minor party that had never held any seats in the British Columbia legislature, as their second choice. The Social Credit Party achieved a spectacular upset victory in the 1952 Election , winning a Plurality of 19 seats in the 48-member legislature to 18 for the CCF, 6 for the Liberals and 4 for the Conservatives. The Soc Creds formed a short-lived minority government until the 1953 Election , in which they won a majority of seats (28 of 48). After the 1953 election, the Liberal and renamed Progressive Conservative Parties were reduced to third parties in the province, and first-past-the-post was reinstated by the government. Republic of Ireland In the Republic Of Ireland IRV is used for presidential elections and for by-elections to the Dáil (the Lower House of parliament). Most elections in the Republic use the Single Transferable Vote. This system was first introduced for a national election when the abortive Parliament Of Southern Ireland was elected in 1921 . It was provided, at the same time, that by-elections for the body would occur under IRV. When what is now the Republic seceded from the United Kingdom in 1922 STV was adopted for ordinary elections to Dáil Éireann and IRV for by-elections, and this combination has been used ever since. STV is also used for local and European elections, but in these cases by-elections do not occur. Instead local council vacancies are filled by Co-option and European vacancies by an individual from a list of replacements nominated by the MEP at the time of his election. The office of President Of Ireland has existed since the adoption of the current Constitution Of Ireland in 1937 , which provided that the President would be elected by IRV. However the first election did not occur until 1945 . This is because the constitution also allows that, where there is agreement among political parties, a consensus candidate can come to office without the occurrence of an election. The President occupies a largely ceremonial position, as real power is exercised by the Taoiseach (prime minister) and Dáil. On the island of Ireland IRV is not referred to as 'instant-runoff voting' and only rarely as the 'Alternative Vote', the name popular in Great Britain . Instead it is usually called the 'Single Transferable Vote' or, sometimes, incorrectly, 'proportional representation'. The name ''Single Transferable Vote'' is used because when the rules of STV are applied to a single-winner election, such as a presidential election or by-election, STV becomes one and the same as IRV. However this can be confusing because there are many important differences between the use of STV for multi-seat elections and IRV. For this reason many scholars regard STV as a separate system from IRV, and that is the convention followed in this article. It is incorrect to refer to IRV as 'proportional representation' because the term ''proportional representation'' can only meaningfully be applied to an election in which more than a single candidate is returned. United Kingdom IRV is currently used in the United Kingdom for by-elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly . In 1917 , the Speaker's Conference advocated the adoption of instant-runoff for 358 of the 569 constituencies in the UK, and STV for the rest. The intention was that STV would be used in densely populated urban areas but, in order to keep constituencies from being too large, IRV would be used in more sparsely populated rural areas. Although the House Of Commons voted in favour of the proposals five times, the House Of Lords continually rejected it until the nationwide effort was ultimately abandoned in parliament. In 1921 the Government of Ireland Act established two home rule parliaments in Ireland –the Parliament Of Northern Ireland and the Parliament Of Southern Ireland –and while STV was used for regular elections to these bodies IRV was used for by-elections. This combination of IRV and STV has been used in what is now the Republic of Ireland ever since. The Northern Ireland Parliament continued to use the combination until the late 1920s when it switched to the ' First Past The Post ' plurality system. However STV for regular elections, and IRV for by-elections, has been reintroduced and used there to elect devolved assemblies since the 1970s. IRV is usually referred to in the UK as the 'Alternative Vote' or 'AV'. In 1998 the Jenkins Commission , charged by the government with suggesting an alternative system to plurality, devised a new system called the Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) for elections to the British Parliament . This involved a combination of Party-list Proportional Representation and single seat constituencies elected under IRV. However no action has been taken on the Commission's report. Most electoral reformers in the UK favour one or other form of Proportional Representation . However the Labour Party minister Peter Hain has written a number of articles advocating IRV for elections to the British Parliament. Electoral scientists have shown that, because of the current distribution of voters across constituencies, had IRV been used in recent British general elections it would have greatly benefited Labour and the Liberal Democrats at the expense of the Conservative Party. United States Suggested by a recent version of Robert's Rules Of Order , instant-runoff voting is used in the United States for some non-governmental elections, including student elections at some major universities, including most notably the ASUC at the University Of California, Berkeley . This issue rose to attention in the United States in the 2000 Election . Supporters of Ralph Nader who nevertheless preferred Democrat Al Gore to Republican George W. Bush found themselves caught in a dilemma. They could vote for Nader, and risk Gore losing to Bush, or, they could vote for Gore, just to make sure that Bush is defeated. It has been argued that Bush won solely due to the "spoiler effect" of Nader supporters in either Florida or in New Hampshire . Notable supporters include Republican U.S. Senator John McCain , 2004 Democratic Presidential Primary election candidates Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich , and Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader . The system is favored by the United States Green Party and the United States Libertarian Party , as a solution to the "spoiler" Effect third-party sympathizers suffer from under plurality voting (i.e., voters are forced to vote tactically to defeat the candidate they most dislike, rather than for their own preferred candidate). In order to increase awareness of the voting method and to demonstrate it in a real-world situation, the Independence Party Of Minnesota tested IRV by using it in a Straw Poll during the 2004 Minnesota Caucus es (results favored John Edwards ). Also, the Green Party Of Minnesota conducts an annual poll of Minnesota State Fair attendees, where each person ranks their preferences for fair food to better understand how IRV works in a real-world situation. IRV was adopted for mayoral races in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1974 after a successful ballot initiative sponsored by the local, left-wing Human Rights Party ; however, the process was used only for the 1975 mayoral election. In March 2002 , an initiative backed by the Center For Voting And Democracy passed by referendum making instant runoff voting the means of electing local candidates in San Francisco . It was first used in that city in the October 2004 YouthVOTE, an election held throughout San Francisco’s public schools which elected the SF school board's student delegate, after that it was used in the November 2004 supervisoral races. (Note: The [http://www.ci.sf.ca.us/site/election_page.asp?id=24269 San Francisco Department of Elections prefers the term "Ranked Choice Voting" because "the word 'instant' might create an expectation that final results will be available immediately after the polls close on election night.") Voters in voted to adopt IRV for the city. Proposals not yet adopted In September , including ranked-choice voting for statewide offices. Activists in the state of Washington have been urging adoption of instant-runoff voting there for several years. An initiative seeking ballot access in 2005 failed to garner enough signatures. The city of Vancouver, Washington has voted to adopt instant-runoff voting, but the state legislature has yet to enact enabling legislation. On May 26, 2005, Representative has no co-sponsors, and has sat without action in the U.S. House Committee On House Administration since the date of introduction. SEE ALSO |
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