[ga] IRV explained

[Weisberg <weisberg@texoma.net>]

For those not familiar with this mechanism:

IRV is  a plug-in to a more general election scheme.  It avoids
plurality/minority rule by finding the greatest consensus on ballot
items or races in which there are more than 2 choices.  It is
explained on by the Center for Voting and Democracy
<http://www.fairvote.org/irv/index.html> as follows:

                               IRV allows voters to rank candidates
as their first choice,
                               second choice, third, fourth and so
on. If a candidate does
                               not receive a clear majority of votes
on the first count, a
                               series of runoff counts are
conducted, using each voter’s top
                               choices indicated on the ballot. The
candidate who received
                               the fewest first place ballots is
eliminated. The ballots are
                               then retabulated, with each counting
as a vote for the
                               top-ranked candidate listed on the
ballot that is still in
                               contention. Voters who chose the
now-eliminated candidate
                               have their vote transferred to their
second choice candidate
                               -- just as if they were voting in a
traditional two-round
                               runoff election. This process
continues until a candidate
                               achieves more than fifty percent of
the vote.



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