{"article":{"id":77224,"heading":"Use IRV and Cast your California Recall vote at RecallSanity.org","author":"Glenn","created":"2003-08-15 20:27:41","modified":"2003-08-15 20:27:41","last_modified":"Sat, 16 Aug 2003 03:27:41","article":"

Simulated Election using Instant Runoff Voting: Cast your California Recall vote at RecallSanity.org -- Green Party Candidate Peter Camejo winning so far!!!

Ask the candidates to support IRV:

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Sample letter:

Dear [insert name and title here],

This letter is to request that you publicly endorse the use of \"ranked choice voting\" aka IRV\/Instant Runoff Voting in future California elections.

IRV is a voting system that ensures a winning candidate will receive an absolute majority of votes rather than a simple plurality. IRV avoids the need for runoff elections by allowing voters to rank candidates in order of preference. Ballots are then counted in a series of rounds, each time redistributing the votes of the last-place candidate to the voters next most favored choice until all candidates but two have been eliminated, and the winner is voted in by a majority.

IRV enhances democracy by allowing voters to express their political preferences without having to \"strategize\", eliminates the \"spoiler\"\/\"split vote\" problem when more than two candidates of a similar political stripe run in the same election, and makes it much more likely (especially in an election like the current California recall) that an individual voter's ballot will play a part in selecting the winner.

More detailed information about how IRV could improve the California Recall, including a \"virtual\" recall election, can be found on the Recall Sanity web site, at http:\/\/www.recallsanity.org<\/a>.

Regards,

[first name and last name]

[address]

[phone or email]

This letter can be sent to the editors of local papers, as well as candidates for Governor, and can be adapted as a general purpose letter to the editor by replacing the first paragraph with this one:

On October 7th, Californians will go to the polls and pick one of 135 separate candidates for Governor. Among these are at least a half-dozen candidates with high name recognition and a potentially broad base of support. Political pollsters are suggesting that the threshold for victory will be somewhere between 20-30% of the voters, thus resulting in the state being governed by someone selected by far less than a majority of the voters at a time when strong and credible leadership is most needed.

It doesn't have to be that way - there is a solution that practically guarantees a Governor elected by a majority of the voters: it is called \"ranked choice voting\", also known as IRV or Instant Runoff Voting.

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