Sen. Stoops has introduced SB 400 concerning “ranked voting.” It’s a long piece of legislation, and the election code — Title 3 – is somewhat bewildering, so, full disclosure: I haven’t read it all. But, very generally, it allows cities, towns, and counties to provide for ranked voting in filling their offices.
The way ranked voting would work is that voters could rank some or all of the candidates, first choice, second choice, third choice, etc. The first time through, you give all the candidates their first choice votes. If a candidate gets a majority of the votes, that candidate wins and the counting stops. If no candidate gets a majority, you go to step 2. You eliminate the candidate with the fewest votes and then, for the ballots that selected that candidate as the first choice, you go to the second choice on those ballots and assign them to the remaining candidates. If no candidate has a majority at that point, you rinse and repeat until you get a majority.
There are a lot of mundane, practical issues with ranked choice voting, which is sometimes called instant run off voting. Is there any voting equipment certified in Indiana that can do ranked choice tabulation?
My guess would be “no.” But you’d probably have a better idea than I would!
I am no longer as conversant with Indiana election law as I once was but I would make the general observation that it is difficult to develop standards to certify equipment if state law is silent on the topic. However, and here is a point often overlooked, virtually all election equipment available can capture voter intent in a ranked choice scenario. Tabulation is a separate, and in many ways, an unrelated issue. We just ran some tests here in Shelby County; people are actually quite good at counting RCV ballots. Of course, folks in Austrailia and many other British Commonwealth countries have known that for years. However, hand counting is a much less transparent process for most people. Also hand countign RCV is considerably more difficult to accomplish on a multi race ballot. Our likely scenario here is a single race per ballot.
Meanwhile, there are major issues with first past the post voting that we’re doing now, mainly that it results in only two viable choices where both are becoming more extreme.
I think we can solve the small tabulation issues with RCV far easier than we can solve the issue with FPTP. After all, we’ve had a few hundred years to work it out, and it is only getting worse.
Oh, if we develop the political will to adopt some sort of IRV, I’m sure we can work out the technical problems. But, I’m going to be deferential to Linda when it comes to the mechanics of running an election — she was, among other positions, our County Clerk in Tippecanoe County some years back.
Linda – from a mechanics perspective, would a nonpartisan blanket primary (aka a jungle primary, what’s done in Louisiana) be easier to administer?
The more I’ve read about nonpartisan blanket primaries, the more I’m beginning to wonder if that’s part of the solution to what we’re currently experiencing as far as partisanship.
All citizens would vote for their preferred candidate in the first round, and the top two move on to the second and final round of voting. Also, if a candidate gets a majority in the first round, there’s no need for another round of elections.
So – for instance, you’ve got Donnelly, Messer, Rokita, and Braun all up for votes in May. Top two move on to the general election. Unless one of them gets 50.01%, in which case they win the election.
Yes, it would be both easier to administer and for voters to understand. However, it often will require a second or run-off election. Those second elections generally have low turnout and a correspondingly high cost per vote. (I often get roundly slammed for thinking in terms of cost per vote; many believe that cost should not be a consideration when discussing our most fundamental rights. But I try to be a realist…a dollar spent on an election is a dollar that can’t be spent on education or public safety.) Ranked choice voting essentially simulates a second or run-off election in a single ballot. However, it is much less transparent than first past the post and costs more than a first past the post contest. It is usually less costly than a second election, though.
Here in Memphis, the Memphis city charter calls for RCV; this appears to conflict with TN state law. We are filing a dec action to try to get some clarity; I am happy to administer elections in any way required by law but really hate last minute surprises.