Duluth News Tribune, Readers View

April 22, 2010

Andy Cilek’s opinion piece (In Response: “Instant-runoff supporters leaving out several key facts,” April 2) claimed Donn Larson, the writer of a previous opinion piece (Local View: “The time has come for ranked-choice voting,” March 18), “was either wrong or didn’t mention” that instant-runoff voting, or IRV, doesn’t treat all ballots equally, that under IRV a voter can harm a preferred candidate by voting for him or her, that IRV elections do not guarantee majority winners, and that IRV does not save money, increase voter turnout or increase debate.

Regarding vote treatment: The Minnesota Supreme Court rejected Cilek’s claim, stating in its unanimous decision that “only one vote or candidate rating is counted for each ballot in each round of counting votes.”

Under IRV, voters might harm their preferred candidate by assigning first choice. But before yielding this point to Cilek, the Supreme Court noted that the current two-round, nonpartisan, primary-general election has the identical effect.

Larson’s claim that IRV yields a majority winner is absolutely true in a single-winner contest but is not claimed for multiseat contests.

Cilek also was wrong, in my opinion, concerning costs, turnout and campaign aspects of IRV.

IRV proponents do not claim IRV increases turnout, but that it increases voter participation in the outcomes of elections by eliminating low-turnout primaries. Eliminating primary elections for local offices should produce savings even with modest initial costs for IRV. Candidates save by having only one campaign.

IRV moderates campaign rhetoric as in many races winners are likely to be decided by second-choice votes. Campaigning shifts away from polarizing issues as candidates seek second-choice votes from a broad voter base. Minneapolis’ IRV experience demonstrated this improved character of debate.

IRV, unfortunately, has been repealed recently in some jurisdictions, but not for the “inherent flaws” Cilek cited. We should have the full facts and understand the opposition forces behind such efforts, which favor their political interests.

David Vose

Duluth

The writer is a former economics instructor, former vice provost for academic administration and past dean of the School of Business and Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He currently is a member of the Duluth Ranked-Choice Voting Steering Committee.