Green Party Candidate
for Mayor of St. Paul
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Green Party Candidate |
| Instant Run-off Voting (IRV) But what about non-local races? How can you vote your conscience if it will splinter off votes and send someone antithetical to your views into office? If you care about preventing the splintering off of Green and Independent voters in state and national races, I urge you to support Instant Run-off Voting (IRV). That is the system that has been used in Australia for over 100 years, and is also used in Ireland, and in cities, towns, and universities across the U.S. It is a system of "preference voting." For instance, in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, if Nader was your top choice, and Gore your second choice, you would be able to indicate that on the ballot. After the initial count of votes, if no candidate had received more than 50% of the votes, the candidate who had received the least amount of votes would have their votes transferred to their second choice. This process would continue until some candidate received at least 50% of the votes — a true majority, not just a plurality. IRV allows voters to vote their conscience without fear of sending someone antithetical to their views into office, and eliminates third parties from being spoilers. FairVote Minnesota, a non-partisan, non-profit dedicated to IRV, sponsored an IRV bill this last session at the state legislature, (which I witnessed and saw pass out of committee). It was supported by both Democrats and Republicans. Ultimately, it did not make it onto an omnibus bill, but the IRV bill will be back next session. Fair Vote MN is made up of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and Greens, who seek a fairer and more democratic voting system. Currently, there is federal money available to upgrade voting machines. It is very important that this money be used to purchase machines that are IRV-compatible or IRV-retrofittable — otherwise there will a significant hurdle to introducing IRV. If you care about this issue, please call Governor Pawlenty and urge him to accept FairVote Minnesota's suggestions for improving the voting machines. For more information, please see www.FairVoteMN.org.
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