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Instant Runoff Voting News in North Carolina
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September 6, 2008 Asheville North Carolina "Claims favoring Instant Runoff Voting don't hold up ...The Minnesota Voters Alliance writes that everyone misses the point, the fatal flaw in IRV: "The problem is not whether voters can understand the procedure of ranking choices, but rather how IRV affects the nature and value of a vote, and how election outcomes are arrived at. It's not just about logistics; it's about the severe problems that arise because of the complex mathematics inherent in preferential voting."
According to elections expert Steven J. Brams, Ph.D. New York University, with IRV "ranking your favorite candidate first could cause him to lose, whereas ranking him last could cause him to win—just the opposite of what you want the system to do."
August 29, 2008 North Carolina: Instant Runoff Voting is no solution, says election official who was there Debra Goldberg writes: I was a Board of Elections official in Wake County during the Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) pilot in Cary in October 2007. As one of only three officials in North Carolina to have administered an IRV runoff, I can tell you that John R. Hudson Jr.’s guest commentary, “Don’t be misled; N.C. has one of the best election systems in the country,” (AC-T, Aug. 14), contained incorrect claims about instant runoff voting in North Carolina and improperly discredited statements made by voting integrity activist...
July 3, 2008 Bad news for those who worked for paper ballot law in North Carolina The rush to experiment with Instant runoff voting in North Carolina has created some very bad news for the supporters of NC's paper ballot law... read more here
June 30, 2008 Instant runoff could cost North Carolina $20 million first year
June 28 Press Release: Instant runoff reform threatens NC's Verified Voting law
Instant runoff voting poses problems Raleigh News & Observer. Point of View.
North Carolina, Instant Runoff Voting and the Flying Car
Instant runoff voting - Literacy Test of the 21st Century?
Fair Vote Director, Rob Richie's statement at the April 24 EAC Roundtable Discussion , advised that something needs to be done to make voting systems compatible with IRV. He said: "for instant runoff voting, or preferential voting methods, it often bangs up against the fact that voting equipment isn't flexible enough to handle these voting methods.... It has real life impact. It's also creating havoc for Pierce County, Washington, a county of 800,000 people which have a big county executive race and they don't know if their system is going to be ready
There is no IRV software available for North Carolina Voting Machines. (ES&S M100s and iVotronics). In an email dated January 7, 2008 Keith Long, the voting systems project manager for the NC State Board of Elections - advises that "There are no provisions on ES&S equipment to tabulate IRV."
Further, there is no federally certified software to count IRV in the United States. This is a huge problem for IRV advocates who are promising huge cost savings and convenience.
No instant-runoff this year 02/01/08 ...no counties volunteered to be guinea pigs.
Opinion mixed on Cary's instant-runoff trial Raleigh N&O. Jan 22, 2008
Jan 17, 2008 Cary residents debate instant runoff voting Cary Politics - News & Observer
Jan 17, 2008 Cary Voters Split on Instant-Runoff Elections (also has video interview) WRAL
Jan 17, 2008 Instant-runoff voting mulled News & Observer
There was a Public Forum Thursday, January 17, 2008 regarding the Pilot Program for Instant Runoff Voting in the Town of Cary. The information from this forum was sent to the State Board of Elections for perusal and report to the General Assembly.
Jan 14, 2008 Point of View: Worrisome realities mar instant runoff Raleigh News & Observer
Oct 30, 2007 Instant runoff needs scrutiny Raleigh News & Observer
October 30, 2007 Critics Take Runoff Concerns to Elections Board NBC 17
Oct 19, 2007 Voter finds new system frustrating By Harrison Metzger Times-News. Hendersonville: Bill Modlin wasn't happy with his first experience with the new "instant runoff" voting when he cast his ballot for Hendersonville City Council on Thursday. ..."It doesn't make any sense to me, and I can guarantee you because of the way they have it set up there are people in this town that are going to lose their vote," he said. ..."I call it instant confusion," he said. (Cached)
Oct 17, 2007 To stem runoff votes, new ballots have voters rank top 3
By Jordan Schrader, USA TODAY. CARY, N.C. - October 17, 2007 Winning candidate Frantz said he heard from many confused voters on the campaign trail ."I found myself, when I was at some places, that's all I was doing … explaining the new voting system," he said. (Cached).
Frantz wins Cary runoff Don Frantz was declared the winner Tuesday from last week's hotly contested vote for the Cary Town Council, District B. The Wake County Board of...Published: Oct 17, 2007 12:30 AM |
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Close race tests new instant runoff Despite a tight race as a test case and even the reservation of a winner, advocates for instant- runoff voting say CaryÂ’s pilot program went well....Published: Oct 16, 2007 12:58 PM |
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Cary satisfied with instant runoffs Cary voters gave the recent instant runoff election high marks, according to a survey conducted by a professor at N.C. State University. Michael Cobb, an...Published: Oct 16, 2007 12:30 AM
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Frantz looks like winner Some double-checking of votes Friday in Cary's razor-thin District B Town Council election showed that Don Frantz is likely the winner after all. The Wake...Published: Oct 13, 2007 12:30 AM
A day after the North Carolina's first count of the instant- runoff ballots and three days after Election Day, it appears that Don Frantz has won...Published: Oct 11, 2007 05:23 PM
District B race is a cliffhanger North Carolina's first "instant runoff" election still hasn't produced a clear winner. Wake elections officials counted ballots in the Cary Town Council District B race...Published: Oct 12, 2007 12:30 AM
Weinbrecht, slower growth win in Cary Slower growth - or better-managed growth, anyway - is in again in Cary, where voters ousted their mayor Tuesday and gave his replacement several supportive...Published: Oct 10, 2007 12:30 AM
Cary vote test may cut costs Elections officials and leaders of election-reform organizations call the instant- runoff voting in Cary on Tuesday a possible way to give more power to voters and...Published: Oct 06, 2007 12:30 AM
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Instant Runoff Voting 1-2-3 Once again Cary is a pacesetter. The Town Council has agreed to pilot Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) in the upcoming Oct. 9 election. This is...Published: Oct 05, 2007 01:43 PM
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Word getting out about Cary's new ballot When Cary voters step into the booth on Oct. 9, they might end up making decisions that would have waited another four weeks in an...Published: Sep 18, 2007 09:30 AM
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Your Letters Sept. 19 Re-elect McAlister My history with the Town of Cary goes back to when I became a “frequent visitor” to see my son and his family....Published: Sep 18, 2007 04:33 PM
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Your Letters Online Sept. 19 Response to Carroll’s letter I would like to clarify some misinformation presented in Mr. Joseph T. Carroll’s letter [Roseland did homework, Sept. 12]. Yes, I...Published: Sep 18, 2007 04:39 PM
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‘Instant runoff’ gets a tryout
Asheville Citizen-Times, NC - Aug 11, 2007
The General Assembly in 2006 agreed to let up to 10 cities and towns this year and 10 counties next year become pilot projects for instant runoff voting. |
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Council votes to change runoff election process The Cary Town Council has given a thumbs up for Cary to be a pilot community for the Wake County Board of Elections Instant Runoff. ..
Published: May 25, 2007 12:17 PM
“This is not a ballot, this is a portal into hell.” — Asheville City Council member Carl Mumpower on instant-runoff ballots, in ”Votes and Slopes,” May 16, 2007 |
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The North Carolina cities of Asheville, Atlantic Beach, Raleigh and Rocky Mount chose not to participate in the IRV pilot program. Cary Town Council members voted 4-3 to move to instant-runoff voting after (even though) Mayor Ernie McAlister, Councilwoman Jennifer Robinson and Councilman Jack Smith called for (and were refused) a public hearing. The city of Cary , North Carolina used IRV for the District B city council election in October 2007 , and the city of Hendersonville used IRV for city council elections in November 2007 but an "instant runoff" was not required.
Rocky Mount: More resist new runoff voting idea By Zach Ahmad Rocky Mount Telegram Monday, April 23, 2007. TARBORO – As Twin Counties elections officials prepare to decide on instant runoff voting for Rocky Mount, the list of those opposing the experiment is growing. Article cached here |
What Raleigh NC City Council Members said about Instant Runoff Voting:
City Council member Dr. James P. West opposed IRV: “I indicated that I have some concerns about this especially in disenfranchises certain segment of voters…especially those of lower socio economic level…”
Council member Thomas Crowder: “Just like blackjack in Las Vegas, we are going to see a lot of game-men's-ship trying figure out the odds on putting people into office…”
Council member Tommy Craven: “To me this is something that would certainly serve the convenience of the board of elections… but it's certainly not in the best interest of the voting public.... read the full account of the city council meeting
Rocky Mount City Council Member:
Rueben Blackwell, Rocky Mount City Council Member and co-chair for the NC Justice Center advised that: "To cast out an instant runoff speculative experiment in communities that have had historic voting rights violations issues is absolutely wrong.."
Brad Friedman of www.bradblog.com gives his opinion on Instant Runoff Voting in email to Rob Richie, Director of Fair Vote (shared with permission)
----- Original Message -----
From: Brad Friedman
To: Rob Richie;
Sent: 1/2/2008 6:29:03 PM
Subject: RE: Burlington and Cary optical scan IRV ballots RE: [election_leaders] RE: [HR811] RE: Happy New Year- here'ssomething we're doing in St. Pete on Jan 3
More to the point, let me put it this way, Rob: Until America is able to assure that every vote is counted and counted accurately, in the plain old vanilla winner-take-all system, and develop protocols and a citizenry to own it, and make sure that it's 100% transparent such that we can all have confidence in the results, we do not deserve any of the perceived benefits that may come from alternate forms of voting and tabulating such as IRV, etc.
If all of those, such as yourself, spent as much time on ridding the country of unusable voting systems such as DREs and inaccurate, uncounted, unaudited paper-ballot systems such as op-scan, as we do on other perceived improvements to the voting system, we might be at a place where we could consider such things.
As I see it, we are nowhere near that place. For the record (and not a trick question either, but one I'm trying to get a sense of) does FairVote call for a ban on all DRE voting systems?
Brad |
