On Local Government: OK, I was wrong.
During the past year, I was voluble in my support of a new kind of election structure called either “ranked choice voting” or “instant runoff voting.” The idea was to eliminate the expensive and, usually, low turnout runoff election that localities use when a 50 percent plus one electoral majority is required. The concept makes sense. When a voter fills out his or her ballot, they rank the people listed so that, in the event none of them get the required majority, the votes of the lowest vote getter would be re-tallied based on the second choice listed. The process would continue until the top vote getter reaches 50 percent plus one. The City of Oakland used this system in the election just conducted for mayor and city council candidates and the results were devastating to the concept. In many of the contests, a person who won majorities in none of the City’s precincts ended up winning the election. In some races, the person with the most votes in each precinct ended up losing. Part of these results could be attributed to an “anybody-but-the-leading-candidate” scenario where not nearly a majority liked the leading candidate, but everybody else didn’t want to come near him…
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