Save IRV Campaign Aims To Allow For Instant Runoff…

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – A group of supporters launched a campaign Tuesday with the goal to save instant runoff voting (IRV).

With instant runoff voting, voters rank the candidates in order of preference. If no candidate wins a majority of first place votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The ballots are then redistributed according to the voter’s choices.

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Coalition champions opposition to repeal of instant runoff voting

Save IRV Memphis, a grassroots coalition opposed to repealing the instant runoff voting (IRV) provision, made a public display of that opposition on Tuesday at the IBEW 474 Hall.

Save IRV Memphis Spokesperson Theryn C. Bond said this is not an issue that is split by party affiliations.

“This is a collective effort across party lines,” Bond said. “In November we want you to say no to repealing IRV and term limits.”

In 2008, the Memphis Charter Review Commission unanimously voted to place a pro-IRV referendum on the ballot. In a citywide referendum election, voters supported IRV by 71 percent.

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On Saving IRV

President Trump’s act of political sabotage by his cavalier scuttling on Tuesday afternoon of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more familiarly known as “the Iran Nuclear Deal,” is not the only ongoing case of official political vandalism. There is some in our own midst.

There is, for example, the fact that important local initiatives passed overwhelmingly by popular referendum within the past decade are in grave peril of being abrogated. A press conference held Tuesday morning at the IBEW Union Hall by a bipartisan citizens’ group calling itself Save IRV Memphis noted for the record that a 2008 city referendum in favor of IRV (Instant Runoff Voting, aka Ranked Choice Voting) had passed by a 71 percent vote in its favor. In a nutshell, what the IRV process would do is eliminate the costly and ill-attended runoff elections required under the present system in district elections without a first-round majority winner.

You can read the remainder of the article here.

Instant Runoff Advocate Reacts to Council Vote for Anti-Runoff…

The following is an exchange between Allan Wade, counsel for the Memphis City Council, and Steve Mulroy, a University of Memphis law professor, former Shelby County Commissioner, and leading advocate of instant runoff voting for local elections. The exchange relates to an ordinance — passed 11-2 by the Council on Tuesday — establishing a referendum that could eliminate all runoff voting in city elections. Mulroy’s reference to being “out of the country” refers to a sabbatical law fellowship of his, now ongoing in Canberra, Australia.

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EDITORIAL: Take Current Council Members Out of Three-Term-Limit Question

For all of the names currently circulating for this or that office on one of the three election days we’ll have in Shelby County this year, it might help somewhere near the outset to remember who and what this is about.

This year will probably have a few ballot questions of a local nature for us to consider.

Memphis voters will decide whether to do away with ranked-choice (aka instant runoff) voting before it can ever be used in Memphis City Council races in 2019.

Read the rest of The Daily News Editorial here.

Memphis City Council Duplicity

Are they kidding? There can be several legitimate arguments adduced for and against the process of voting known as both Instant Runoff Voting and Ranked Choice Voting, but the Memphis City Council’s current campaign against the process has gone way out of bounds.

Read the rest of the Memphis Flyer Editorial here.

Editorial: One person, one vote, one big mess

Maybe every election should have a do-over. That seems to be the prevailing position of the Memphis City Council.

In 2008, 155,000 Memphians voted to approve instant runoff voting, a new method of electing city council members that does away with traditional second-election runoffs.

Read the remainder of this Commercial Appeal Editorial here.

Election Commission to sue Memphis, Tennessee over instant runoffs

The Shelby County Election Commission voted Tuesday to sue Memphis and Tennessee to settle the question of whether instant runoff elections are legal.

The commission voted unanimously to ask the Davidson County Chancery Court to make a declaratory judgment on whether it should follow the city charter and implement instant City Council runoffs as planned in 2019, or follow the direction of state elections coordinator Mark Goins, who in September opined that instant runoffs are illegal — although instant-runoff supporters say his arguments are based on misunderstandings.

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Instant runoff voting will get another vote in Memphis

The fight is not over!

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis will ask voters — again — for their opinion on whether instant runoff should be used in city elections.

Voters approved the process, also known as ranked choice voting, by a wide margin in a referendum a decade ago but it was never put in place because the Shelby County Election Commission said voting machines weren’t set up for it.

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Council Wants Second Shot at Holding City Back

The Memphis City Council thinks the City’s voters are just so dumb.

Ten years ago, the fine people of Memphis voted to end runoff elections using a neat little system called Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). IRV does away with costly (around $250,000) and poorly attended runoff elections (6% of registered voters in 2015) by letting voters rank their choices. If no one gets a straight majority, the vote counters take the second choice of the folks who voted for the candidate with the fewest votes. This continues until someone gets a majority of the vote. Simple enough right?

Apparently not.

Read the rest of the article here.