[2249] in peace2
Forum on electoral reform, Thurs, Feb.27, 7pm in 6-120
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Aimee L Smith)
Wed Feb 19 21:24:11 2003
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To: peace-announce@MIT.EDU
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Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 21:24:00 -0500
From: Aimee L Smith <alsmith@MIT.EDU>
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* FORUM ON ELECTORAL REFORM AND INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING *
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Sponsored by MIT Greens and MIT College Democrats
Thursday, February 27, 2003
7-8:30 PM, MIT room 6-120
Speakers:
Peter Vickery, Amherst lawyer and IRV bill author
Rep. Alice Wolf (D-Cambridge), IRV bill sponsor
Rep. Byron Rushing (D-Boston), IRV bill co-sponsor (invited)
Ron Bell, director of Dunk the Vote (invited)
How can we become free to vote for a candidate we support without allowing
a distasteful candidate into office? Why did Tolman and Reich lose to
O'Brien in the Democratic primaries this year? Why did Michael Capuano
secure himself the Democratic nomination to be our representative to U.S.
Congress with a mere 23% of the vote? Why did the Florida vote come so
close in 2000? The answer is that none of these elections used Instant
Runoff Voting!
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) is a way of voting that may become the
standard for some offices in Massachusetts as soon as the 2004 elections.
In IRV, each voter ranks the candidates according to preference, choosing
one candidate first, another second, and so on. In the event that no
candidate has a majority of first choice votes, the lowest ranking
candidate is eliminated and all candidates move up on those ballots.
In Massachusetts, three bills currently in the state legislature would
make IRV the method of voting in certain elections. Our speakers will
discuss electoral reforms such as IRV and bring us up to date on their
current legal status in Massachusetts.
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Contact: Brad Friedman, baf@mit.edu, 617-230-7055
Flyer: http://web.mit.edu/greens/www/irv.pdf
More information on IRV in Massachusetts: http://www.massIRV.org/
More information on voting systems:
http://www.channel1.com/users/dkesh/green/voting/
