Somerville for IRV

Lots of IRV news in recent weeks . . .

• London – On May 1, London held its third Mayoral Election in history, all three of which have used a variant of Instant Runoff Voting. Under a system known as Supplementary Vote, Londoners rank two candidates and all but two candidates are eliminated after the first round. In the first mayoral election in 2000, Ken Livingstone was elected as an independent, and he went on to win re-election in 2004 as a member of the Labour Party. On May 1, he lost his seat to Conservative Party member Boris Johnson.

• Colorado – The Colorado legislature has passed a bill that would allow municipalities to adopt IRV (and Choice Voting) for their local elections. Basalt and Aspen, CO already use IRV to elect their mayors.

• Los Angeles, CA – The effort to pass IRV in Los Angeles is heating up. It is now endorsed by the LA League of Women Voters, the LA Chamber of Commerce, former Republican Mayor Richard Reardon, 5 Members of the LA City Council, and SEIU Local 721.

• Memphis, TN – The Memphis Charter Commission has unanimously voted to add Instant Runoff Voting to the list of ballot measure voters will decide upon in November. Memphis is the largest city in Tennessee and the 17th largest in the U.S. If passed, the measure would save the city $250,000 each election cycle by eliminating runoff elections.

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