Needless to say, supporters of the first-past-the-post
status quo will be inviting supporters of other electoral systems
(principally STV and MMP versions of proportional representation) to vote
no to the AV/IROV proposal. This is because supporters of
first-past-the-post believe that elections should be won by the largest
single bloc of dedicated supporters, and not with the grudging assistance
of those who consider it the lesser of two evils.
A lot of the UK commentary about AV/IROV cites the disastrous
consequences it has had in a country named "Australia", which
seems to bear as much relationship to my actual homeland as the Celtic
legend of "Brazil" bears to Dilma Rousseff's country.
At 09:57 19/02/2011, Rob Richie wrote:
Folks,
As we head off into President's Day weekend, I thought this news from
across the Atlantic might be of interest to folks who last fall followed
the exchanges on instant runoff voting (aka ranked choice voting, aka the
alternative vote).
I'll share the news via today's FairVote enewsletter-lite edition below,
which also touches on some other reform developments of note this
week.
Rob Richie
###############
Instant Runoff Voting On British Ballot in May 5th National
Referendum
.... and Try out IRV Yourself in Oscar Votes 123
Demo!
The British have a chance to reject their U.S.-style electoral system in
favor of instant runoff voting (called "the alternative vote",
or AV in the United Kingdom). Legislation to establish a May 5th national
referendum cleared parliament this week, and polls show IRV can win. Even
more than the United States, Britain has had a large rise in third party
voting in recent decades, and IRV is a sensible step toward better
accommodating voter choice and avoiding the "spoiler"
controversy.
Backers of a Yes vote in the referendum include the Financial
Times, Guardian and Independent newspapers, along with
party leaders Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. With their film The King's
Speech favored to win the Best Picture Oscar next week in an election
also decided by IRV, Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter have
joined
the Yes campaign. See the latest news at the UK campaign website:
Yes
to Fairer Votes
Here in the United States, Fort Collins (CO) will vote on IRV in April.
State legislation is advancing as well; a bill in Hawaii earned with a
unanimous committee vote this week.
For those of you wanting a more hands-on experience with a new voting
method - and to boost your favorite in the Oscar race for Best Picture -
try out our easy-to-use demo at
OscarVotes123.com.
Have a great
weekend,
Rob Richie, Executive Director
More Reform Highlights from the Week
Fair voting in Egypt: New York Times features Steven Hill in oped
series on proportional voting
The United States is one of the few major democracies to only use
winner-take-all elections for national legislatures. Nearly every country
in recent decades moving to genuine democratic elections has adopted
forms of proportional voting, including South Africa, Brazil and all the
Eastern European nations formerly dominated by the Soviet Union. As Egypt
heads toward what the world hopes will be its first truly free and fair
elections, international students of democratic transitions are nearly
united in recommending a proportional voting system. The New York
Times this week ran a fascinating on-line
collection of commentaries on Egypt and fair elections, with
several recommending replacing winner-take-all with proportional voting.
Steven Hill, who helped found FairVote and went on to years of effective
reform work in California, contributes to the collection.
IRV Advances in Hawaii and
Colorado
Instant runoff voting (IRV, also known as "alternative vote",
"ranked choice voting" and "preferential voting") is
designed to accommodate increased voter choice and uphold majority rule.
At least one city has passed IRV in a ballot measure every year since
2004. In April, Fort Collins (CO) will vote on it after the local League
of Women Voters and a broad coalition of reformers collected signatures
to place it on the ballot. (Here is
their
campaign
website.) Meanwhile, Hawaii in 2010 had a congressional special
election won with less than 40% of the vote, and other county special
elections won with even less. A legislative committee on Tuesday
unanimously adopted legislation to adopt IRV for local vacancy elections,
as
covered in the Civil Beat.
National popular vote plan for president advances in West
Virginia and Vermont
The
national
popular vote plan for president would guarantee that the winner
of the national popular vote in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. would
be elected president. It is advancing in
states around the nation, building on its remarkable progress
of passing at least one chamber in 21 states and being signed into law in
six states and Washington, D.C. This week it passed key committee votes
in
West
Virginia and
Vermont.
Constitutional right to vote legislation introduced / Rob
Richie's latest blog
We must establish the clear principle that, just like our First Amendment
rights, the right to vote is essential to representative democracy. We
need confidence that every eligible voter vote has full access to vote,
but that no ineligible vote should be cast. We strongly endorse
Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s new legislation to establish a,
a
constitutional right to vote. HIs
HJR
28
was introduced this week. FairVote fellow Jo McKeegan writes a blog
series on voting rights and the increasingly obviously argument that we
must ensure that voting rights never become just another pawn in the
partisan battles between the major parties. Rob
Richie's
recent contribution to the series also appeared in the
Huffington Post.
Visit Twitter.com/endgerrymander for the latest tweets --
take federal action for proportional
voting
With the mid-term elections over and legislatures back in session,
redistricting is getting into full swing in states across the United
States. FairVote has
a variety of resources on redistricting. This year we are
regularly tweeting news on redistricting around the country - see
www.twitter.com/endgerrymander. And to help us put voters in
charge, we need to move away from winner-take-all elections: the
forthcoming Congress Commissions Act is designed to launch that
conversation. Please visit our
action page to urge your Member to sponsor the bill.
Did you miss the latest FairVote
Reformer?
This month's FairVote Reformer was chock-full of news, analysis
and links - don't miss it! And please join us in wishing our long-time
board chair John B. Anderson a happy birthday -- the former Congressman
and presidential candidate turned 89 on February 15th.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Respect for Every Vote and Every Voice"
Rob Richie
Executive Director
FairVote
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
Takoma Park, MD 20912
www.fairvote.org
rr@fairvote.org
(301) 270-4616
Please support FairVote through action and tax-deductible donations --
see http://fairvote.org/donate.
For federal employees, please consider a gift to us through the Combined
Federal Campaign (FairVote's CFC number is 10132.) Thank you!
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