Preferential voting is not too difficult

Posted on March 4th, 2009 Jack No comments  Print This Post

Several political scientists have advocated for preferential voting systems as conflict management devices in divided societies.¹ The most common criticism I hear is that they are too complicated. I do not believe this, at least where literacy rates are reasonably high.

Recent American experience with ranked voting systems shows that a little voter education goes a long way. Burlington, VT just held its second ever instant runoff voting election. Of 8,980 total ballots, only four were invalid. That’s a 0.04 percent error rate. Less fatally, only one voter did not use all five of his/her rankings, according to Rob Richie.²

Here is an example of the ballot voters used.

1. Donald Horowitz has advocated instant runoff voting/alternative vote. Ben Reilly and Andrew Reynolds have variously advocated and highlighted the single transferable vote.
2. UPDATE: Actually, the voter did not specify a first choice.