IRV “Ranked Choice Voting” Legislation
Good evening. My name is George Gluck. I am testifying today on behalf of
the Green Party of Montgomery County on the issue of Instant Runoff
Voting, or “IRV.” I am also a declared Green Party candidate for the
Congressional District 6 seat.
Instant Runoff Voting is a voting system where you rank your preference
for an office among multiple candidates, 1 instead of just voting for one
candidate. If one candidate does not win an outright majority, then the
votes for the lowest candidate are re-distributed to the #2 choice of those
voters. Then you see again if you have a majority for one person, and
continue until you have a majority. This system allows a field with many
candidates to accurately and instantly choose the candidate that most
accurately reflects the preference of the voters. The system ensures that the
winner has the support of a majority of voters. It is more accurate, cheaper,
and more fair than our current system.
IRV eliminates the potential “spoiler” effect of candidates from three or more
parties for a single office, by assuring the candidate with a majority of the
votes wins. It also increases voter turnout, and widens the policy options
being discussed with the voters.
I was pleased to discover that Maryland utilized IRV as early as 1912 for
party primary elections2. In recent years, IRV has been used in some statewide elections in North Carolina and Utah. IRV is presently used by
Arkansas and South Carolina for absentee voting. The city of San Francisco
has used IRV for all voting since 2002. Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of
two of our most prestigious universities, has used it continuously since the
1940s.2
Our own Takoma Park, Maryland implemented IRV for all elections in
2007, after 84% of the voters approved it in a ballot referendum.
1
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/irvoting.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting_in_the_United_States
3
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/hrd/pubs/irvoting.pdf
2
In a paper published by researchers from Ohio State and Harvard
Universities, they state that third-party challengers “are increasingly
common in the post-1960s age of candidate-centered politics.” IRV
welcomes these third parties, but does not distort the final result as our
current Maryland voting system does. In fact, it produces a candidate who
more accurately represents the will of the majority.
One of the Green Party’s 10 Key Values is Grassroots Democracy. Part of
that value is “work[ing] to increase public participation at every level of
government.” This includes voting, and especially IRV.
I sincerely urge you to pass the first state-wide Instant Runoff Voting
legislation for all races in Maryland, so that we can welcome all points of
view into the political debate, and end up with representatives who most
accurately reflect the values of our constituents.
George Gluck
11/18/2015