[2287] in peace2
2/27 Electoral Reform + Instant Runoff Voting
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Gregory D Dennis)
Tue Feb 25 19:35:12 2003
Message-ID: <3E5C0A3A.1070401@mit.edu>
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 19:28:42 -0500
From: Gregory D Dennis <gdennis@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
Locate building 6: http://whereis.mit.edu/bin/map?locate=bldg_6
Speakers:
Peter Vickery, Amherst lawyer and IRV bill author
Rep. Alice Wolf (D-Cambridge), IRV bill sponsor
Ron Bell, Dunk the Vote
Jim Henderson, MassIRV
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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