election-law_gl-digest Friday, March 15 2002 Volume 01 : Number 165
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Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 13:09:40 +1000
From: Graeme Orr <g.orr@mailbox.gu.edu.au>
Subject: RE: San Francisco to Drop Local Runoff Elections
Re technology for preferential/'instant runoff' voting: preferential
voting in Australia (whether simple alternative vote, or complex
multi-member PR) is conducted, almost without exception, with paper
ballots, pencils and trained eye-balls and party scrutineers at the
count. (Pencils and paper are the cheapest and most fail-safe method,
according to the electoral authorities). However the ACT (our version of
DC) late last year experimented with computer balloting (nb not internet
based): http://www.elections.act.gov.au/MediaReleases/media0104.html
Graeme Orr
At 18:25 14/03/2002 -0800, Paul Ryan wrote:
Tom Round asked two questions.
First, does San Francisco allow the voter a maximum of three preferences?
San Francisco's charter amendment states, "The ballot shall allow voters to
rank a number of choices in order of preference equal to the total number of
candidates for each office; provided, however, if the voting system, vote
tabulation system, or similar or related equipment used by the City and
County cannot feasibly accommodate choices equal to the total number of
candidates running for each office, then the Director of Elections may limit
the number of choices a voter may rank to no fewer than three."
Second, will the San Francisco system be used on voting machines? It is my
understanding that San Francisco is currently using an optical scan voting
system. In an optical scan system, the voter darkens an oval on the ballot
with a pen or pencil. The darkened ovals are then read by a vote-counting
machine. According to a recent SF Chronicle article, San Francisco's voting
equipment vendor, Election Systems & Software, is currently researching
whether the instant runoff system can be implemented using the optical scan
system. The city is also considering purchasing new touch screen voting
machines to implement the instant runoff system.
********************
Paul Ryan
Project Director
Center for Governmental Studies
10951 West Pico Blvd., Suite 120
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Ph. (310) 470-6590 ext. 115
Fax (310) 475-3752
pryan@cgs.org
http://www.cgs.org
********************
Graeme Orr
Lecturer, Law
Griffith University
Brisbane 4111
Australia
email: g.orr@mailbox.gu.edu.au
fax: + 61 7 3875 5599
ph: + 61 7 3875 6469
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End of election-law_gl-digest V1 #165
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