Instant Runoff Voting
The Literacy Test of the 21st Century
"Literacy is using printed and written information to function in society, to
achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential."
Following the low turnout Labor Commissioner runoff, some organizations are promoting "instant runoff"as a solution.
IRV is not "instant" and it is not the same as a runoff. The IRV "solution" creates new problems and will confuse some voters.
In prioritizing reforms, lawmakers should consider their impact on the less educated with in our community.
Literacy tests were eliminated decades ago for a reason. Reforms must be prioritized to protect everyone's right to vote.
If the objective of an election process is to discern the will of the voters, then that process must be the simplest,
most transparent and most enfranchising method for all voters.
Ask for one person, one vote, on paper, publicly audited, no exceptions
Background: North Carolina authorized a pilot program for instant runoff voting for up to 10 cities in 2007 and up to 10 counties for 2008.
The cities of Cary and Hendersonville were the only participants, and the experiment expired.
Now IRV proponents are back, asking for a 3 year "pilot" with the ultimate goal of forcing all voters to rank 3 choices for
every single contest on the ballot. Democracy NC's (Bob Hall) ultimate goal is to switch North Carolina to proportional representation.
Instant Runoff Voting is not Instant, and not as easy as 1-2-3
San Francisco re-named it "Ranked Choice Voting" because it isn't "instant". San Francisco spends a huge amount of money
on voter education, ($1.87 per voter) something our state won't do, since North Carolina wants to "save money".
With the instant runoff voting system, voters casting a ballot in races with more than two candidates
mark a first and (if desired) second and third choice for each office. If no candidate receives a majority
during the first round, the second choices of losing candidates are reallocated to the top two contenders.
IRV puts a burden on voters, opens us up to a gaming of the ballot, and makes election transparency as clear as mud.
Efforts to block the vote just keep coming:
1st, only certain people could vote.
then, some people only had 3/5 of a vote
next, came poll taxes,
then, came literacy tests,
We would never tolerate these barriers to our franchise today.
Today's barriers to voting are more sophisticated and promoted sometimes by people we trust and respect.
Paperless Electronic Voting.
Votes are lost, switched, added or subtracted by voting machines with no paper record to check the electronic count against.
We corrected that by passing the Public Confidence in Elections Act in August, 2005.
Voter registration databases.
When registering to vote, people have to provide a social security number, and a drivers license number (if they have one) etc on it.
Then the State Board of Elections tries to match this information with the DMV and the Social Security databases.
20% of social security numbers don't match, and they don't give a reason why. The last 4 digits are what are used to run the match,
and any woman who has had a name change, or anyone with a mis spelling etc can be disenfranchised. They aren't registered.
We corrected the "No Match No Vote" rule in August, 2007. So now, if you don't match, you still are registered, you just need
to provide the type of id required in NC the first time you vote.
because, by state law, voters who mark the "straight-party-ticket voting" option must also vote separately for president. This continues to
be a problem as new voters enter the system each election, and many already existing voters are unaware.
What is new in Blocking the Vote?
How about Instant Runoff Voting, a new, sophisticated voting method -marketed as "Its as easy as 1-2-3".
You will be asked to mark 3 choices for each contest in a local election.
The long term goal is to require us to rank all contests for ALL elections.
Many people will be embarrassed to say - but I don't get it, how is my vote counted?
What if I rank the only candidate I care about - 3 times? (hint - your 2nd and 3rd choices won't count)
What if I don't have a 2nd and 3rd choice, will my vote count as much as other peoples? (No!)
What if I don't read the same papers and hear the same radio that "educates" the public about IRV? (You won't be on equal footing.)
Even SOME people in the well advantaged Cary found it confusing:
Cary election previews vote in Hendersonville By Jordan Schrader, October 15, 2007
...When the count ended, Frantz led by a couple of dozen votes, with an official total due Tuesday.
Frantz said he wouldn't support another instant-runoff.
Hundreds of people he met left the polls not understanding the system, he said.
He prefers an actual runoff with a clear choice of two candidates.
"Even after all this is said and done, none of us got a clear majority," Frantz said.
More on What They Don't Tell You about IRV:
1)negatively impacts election integrity,
2)increases costs and labor for elections, audits and recounts, making them more onerus,
3)disenfranchises certain segments of the population,
4)does not meet its political promise,
5)does not allow voters 2nd chance to elect their preferred candidate,
6)it does nothing about the problem of ballot access for third parties.
Have a conversation with one of your friends and try to explain to each other how the ballots are counted.
See the instructions for counting the IRV ballots here (pdf file)
North Carolina's Literacy Problem:
Literacy in North Carolina 1998 Edition Mary Dunn Siedow NC Literacy Resource Center
Nationally: one-fifth -- or 20% -- of the adult population experiences significant literacy difficulty.
In North Carolina: In 1994, some 18% (approximately 894,733) of adults were estimated to perform at Level 1. In 1997, Level 1 performance was estimated at
nearly 22% (approximately 1,139,507 of adults). These adults would be likely to have serious literacy difficulties and to need significant literacy instruction.
North Carolina can be said to experience significant adult literacy needs. Level one would be least literate, level 5 the most literate.
Counties with the highest percentages of adults in Level 1 include Bertie, Northampton, Warren, Halifax, and Hertford. In 46 counties the percentage of
adults in Level 1 is higher than the state’s overall 22%.
Counties with the highest percentages of adults in Level 2 include Alleghany, Graham, Warren, Bertie, Mitchell, Montgomery, and Northampton. In 76
counties the percentage of adults in Level 2 is higher than the state’s overall 30%.
Counties with the highest percentages of adults in Levels 3-5 include Orange, Wake, Dare, Watauga, and Mecklenberg. In 25 counties, the percentage of adults
in Levels 3-5 is larger than the state’s overall 48%. The above information demonstrates again that literacy is linked to other social and educational characteristics.
Among counties the greatest literacy needs appear in counties that are poor, rural, isolated and have the least available access to educational services.
In contrast, wealthy counties with highest educational levels have the highest percentages of literate adults.
IRV is more compatible with countries like Australia, or Ireland - that have only 1 or 2 contests on the paper ballot counted by hand.
But Australia and Ireland don't vote for lots of contests like we do in the US. They vote for single contests, party tickets, or parliament, and
Third parties are still mostly shut out.
North Carolina doesn't even have "real" IRV, it has a "modified" form that ranks only three candidates and eliminates all but the top two.
If you didn't rank either of the top two as a choice, then you won't be participating in the runoff.
Cary, North Carolina's election was a mess, provisional ballots weren't even counted until canvass, after the "first" and "second" rounds,
perhaps because the law was so poorly written. Wake had to back up and re-insert the approved provisionals. This makes no sense
because you can't advance to the second round without counting the entire first round.
Additionally, the 3,000 ballots were miscounted and had to be recounted later. IRV is just a 21st century version of a literacy test.
