[ga] IRV explained/reformatted

[Weisberg <weisberg@texoma.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
From: Weisberg <weisberg@texoma.net>
Subject: IRV explained
To: ga@dnso.org

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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