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Vermont Instant-Runoff Bill Likely to Advance in Early February

Posted on January 24, 2008 by admin

Vermont S. 108, which would provide that Instant-Runoff voting be used in congressional general elections, is likely to advance during the first half of February. The bill passed the Senate last year, and also the House policy committee last year. It will probably pass the House fiscal committee during the first ten days in February, and is also expected to pass the full House.

No state has ever used Instant Runoff-Voting in a statewide general election in U.S. history, so if this bill passes, it will be historic. IRV was used long ago in a few states for statewide primaries.

Comments

Vermont Instant-Runoff Bill Likely to Advance in Early February — No Comments

Bob Richard on January 24, 2008 at 11:09 am said:

IRV was used long ago in a few states for statewide primaries.

I’m not sure about this. The Bucklin system was used briefly for a few statewide primaries and local offices in a few cities. But Bucklin is not IRV, even though it’s based on a rank-the-candidates-in-order-preference ballot. Specifically, your second choice vote can hurt the chances of your first choice candidate.

The only historical use of single-winner IRV in the U.S. that I’m aware of is Ann Arbor in 1975 or 1976.
Richard on January 24, 2008 at 12:29 pm said:

How about Florida in the 1900’s and 1910’s decade?
David Weller on January 25, 2008 at 4:37 am said:

If it does pass, it will be an historic example for other states to observe and maybe follow.
Bob Richard on January 25, 2008 at 7:47 am said:

As usual, Richard is correct. See FairVote’s history:

In the United States, IRV election laws were first adopted in 1912. Four states — Florida, Indiana, Maryland, and Minnesota — used versions of IRV for party primaries. Seven other states, used a different version of preference voting known as the Bucklin system. … Of the four states with IRV, only the Maryland law used the standard IRV sequential elimination of bottom candidates, while the others used batch elimination of all but the top two candidates.