How will Instant Runoff Voting in Maine affect further voting reform?

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blahface
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How will Instant Runoff Voting in Maine affect further voting reform?

Post by blahface »

OK, so the instant runoff voting initiative passed in Maine and it will be implemented statewide. I think IRV is much better than FPTP, but I do not think it is a very good system. I am worried that it may leave a bad taste in the mouths of the voters and it may lead to a repeal and subsequently poison the well for further voting reform.

The first problem I have is that the results aren't intuitive and it can give weird results. It has been argued that you can vote for your favorite without worry, but this isn't really true because order of elimination matters. I'm afraid that people won't understand the results and blame the voting system. This happened in the Burlington, Vermont mayoral race in which the Democrat would have beaten the Progressive head to head, but ending up winning because Republican voters put the Republican as their first choice instead of strategically voting for their second choice - the Democrat . The voters voted to repeal it after the election.

Another problem I have with it is that I think voters may feel that they have to do more homework on candidates and just choose not to vote. There is also a problem that a lot of people just don't understand how it works.

I am crossing my fingers that this works though. I hope other states will go forward with better and simpler voting systems like approval voting. I am really scared that there will be voting reform fatigue and opponents will argue "you said IRV was going to fix the problem and it didn't. Why waste money on another failed failed system?"
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