Greens continue to make false claims about IRV

[Clay Shentrup]

http://greaterbouldergreenparty.org/alternative-voting-methods-kevin-alumbaugh/

I made a comment that is still "awaiting moderation", so presumably will never be published. It's astounding how resistant IRV proponents are to easily-verifiable refutations of their false talking points. It just confounds me.

Article text:

Alternative Voting Methods by Kevin Alumbaugh

FEBRUARY 6, 2015 BY GREATER BOULDER GREENS LEAVE A COMMENT

The existing winner take all voting system is the principal vehicle that perpetuates the current “duopoly” of the two-party system. This flawed and undemocratic system discourages people from participating in our democracy due to lack of choice and relegates their vote to the “lesser of two evils.” There are several more desirable voting methods some of which are already being used in state and municipal elections.

The Green Party platform endorses the adoption of proportional representation voting systems for legislative seats on municipal, county, state, and federal levels. Proportional representations systems provide that people are represented in the proportion their views are held in society and are based on dividing seats proportionally within multi-seat districts compared to the standard U.S. single-seat winner take all districts. Forms of proportional representation include choice-voting (candidate-based); party list (party-based); and mixed member-voting (combines proportional representation with district representation.

The platform advocates Instant Run-off Voting (IRV) for chief executive offices like mayor, governor and president and other single-seat elections. Under IRV, voters can rank candidates in their order of preference (1,2,3, etc.) IRV ensures that the eventual winner has majority support and allows voters to express their preferences knowing that supporting their favorite candidate will not inadvertently help their least favored candidate. IRV thus frees voters from being forced to choose between the lesser of two evils, and saves money by eliminating unnecessary run-off elections.

Instant Runoff Voting is currently being used for municipal elections in Basalt, Colorado, Berkley, California, Hendersonville, North Carolina, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Oakland, California, San Leandro, California, St. Paul, Minnesota, Takoma Park, Maryland, and Telluride Colorado. It is also being used by many states for overseas and military voters.

There are many alternative voting methods out there. A good resource for information is www.fairvote.org/reforms/instant-runoff-voting/.

The Green Party platform also advocates for public financing of elections, prohibiting corporate spending to influence elections, eliminating all ballot access laws that discriminate against smaller parties and independents, abolishing the Electoral College, and creating a publicly-funded Peoples’ Commission on Presidential Debates that would open up the presidential debates to all candidates who appear on at least as many ballots as would represent a majority of the Electoral College and who raise enough funds to otherwise qualify for general election public financing. There are several other points in the Political Reform plank of the Green Party platform.

gp.org/what-we-believe/our-platform/17-platform/37-i-democracy”

On November 15th of last year the organization Free And Equal hosted an Alternative Voting Methods Symposium in Glendale, Colorado. There were many third party members in attendance including Greens and Libertarians. Our Libertarian friends favor Approval Voting in which you can vote for any candidate you approve of and the candidate with the most votes wins. Most Greens prefer Instant Runoff Voting because it allows you to list your choices in order of preference.

Alternative Voting Methods clearly offer the electorate more and often better choices in elections and empowers third parties by eliminating the “spoiler issue” and ensuring that the winning candidate has achieved a majority of the vote.