Instant Runoff Voting

I sent in my term paper! Also I'm super hyper since some close friends got into their top choice schools and I got my AP money ($500!) :)

Today I researched some cons of instant runoff voting (alternative vote) since it is one of my top choice reforms.

The two biggest issues are money and technology. New machines have to be bought to count the ranked votes and those are sometimes programmed incorrectly, leading to lawsuits. Another thing that came up was voter confusion; voters not familiar with the idea did not understand the ranking idea and how it was being implemented. It did however save money by preventing an additional runoff race. The technology hurdle is a significant problem: this article says that it causes IRV to fail North Carolina's voting standards.

Before IRV could be implemented information about the system would have to be distributed. The issues that it faced in getting passed on local levels would not be as big a factor in getting it passed on a statewide level because the argument there was concerning a statute in which the majority winner had to be a true majority, not a majority resulting from a "runoff". There isn't such a law concerning of the presidential election. Also, there would have to an increased focus on debates to disseminate information since there won't be a separate runoff. I want to use it in the primaries too, since that is where there is an issue with multiple candidates.

Reading about instant runoff: this article points out that IRV would encourage the candidates to work together to avoid alienating voters who are figuring out who their second-choice rank candidate is. It will also help moderate candidates in an environment that is extreme and partisan. By eliminating "spoiler" candidates, third party ideas would get more headway, which is important for political debate and social reforms. This article also lists a litany of places, institutions, and countries that use IRV so I have to put those somewhere too.

NOTE TO LOOK AT CAMPAIGN FUNDING NEXT WEEK

Mr. Correa says I get an automatic 100 for turning in my term paper first. Since I have no idea if he's trolling me I'm just gonna put that here for reference.