Instant Runoff Voting in Burlington VT is simple, despite what the critics say. The videos here help explain how IRV is working here in Burlington Vermont. While Instant Runoff Voting isn't perfect, it is better than plurality voting with a 40% minimum for victory, which is what used to be the minimum requirement and would be again if Proposal #5 is accepted this March. IRV requires a +50% majority (a true majority) before a winner is declared.
Instant Runoff Voting, also known as Ranked Choice Voting, isn't the only alternative to Plurality Voting (also know as Regular Voting). The Copeland Method of voting, which meets the Condorcet Criterion, compares how candidates do when matched against each of the individual candidates. The candidate with the most victories and we can infer the most preferred, is declared the winner. In most instances IRV and the Copeland Method will produce the same winner. In close races with 3 or more candidates, the two can produce different results. This is what happened in the 2009 Mayoral Election in Burlington, VT, in which Bob Kiss was elected using the IRV system when Andy Montroll was actually the Condorcet Winner using the Copeland Method.
The above video describes the Instant Runoff Voting system used in Burlington. They use colored Post-it® notes as a visual aid, making it extremely simple to understand.
Burlington's Intant Runoff Voting System
Copeland's Method
This method is different in that the winner is decided by head-to-head victories rather than the cumulative votes after elimination rounds. Simply put, it compares all candidates in head-to-head competitions, and whomever has the most number of victories wins. This method meets the Condercet Criterion and would be my preference.
See the Wikipedia explanations of Condorcet Criterion and Copeland's Method.
Comments
probably Ranked-Pairs is the best compromize between simplicity, transparency, and meaningful outcome in the case of a Condorcet cycle.
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