Let’s get right into it: Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is not good. It is not good because it suffers from three fundamental problems: it discriminates against classes of voters by adding complexity the ballot; it has a very real potential to produce perverse outcomes or voting paradoxes that are not majoritarian; and it fails to address the real problem that arises when multiple parties compete in a two-party system.
February 21, 2010
Voting Paradoxes and Perverse Outcomes that are NOT majoritarian
With the Burlington run-off now concluded, and with a high accuracy rate now established in the counting, questions linger about IRV itself. No one in the state has put together a more compelling data set than Political Scientist Tony Gierzynski. Tony’s was the only group to conduct exit polling in 2006; this time out, he’s brought forward far less reassuring data, Voting Paradoxes and Perverse Outcomes:
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3 comments:
"it discriminates against classes of voters by adding complexity the ballot"
This continued baloney rhetoric is really an insult to voters. To say that ranking one's preferences is "too complex" is just silly...people do this kind of thing in their daily lives dozens of times a day!
"it has a very real potential to produce perverse outcomes or voting paradoxes that are not majoritarian"
This has been discussed to death by now, and it simply isn't true.
"it fails to address the real problem that arises when multiple parties compete in a two-party system."
Both VT as a whole & Burlington in particular have a multi-Party system. One can try & whine about this FACT, or one can simply acknowledge this FACT & move on with one's life. Wishing third Parties away will not make them go away.
It's not the complexity, as much as the loss of the voter's right to choose that bothers me. If my 'one vote' is to be fractured and redistributed, I want to be the one to do so, whatever 'round' or 'runoff' is involved.
"It's not the complexity, as much as the loss of the voter's right to choose that bothers me."
You "logic" makes no sense whatsoever. With IRV, one can choose to rank a list of candidates anyway that they want to.
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