What About IRV?

Another alternative voting system that is being tried in selected cities is Instant Runoff Voting (also known as IRV.) Supporters claim many of the same benefits that Approval Voting delivers, but it is a more difficult system to explain since the method used to select winners is fairly convoluted.

Instant Runoff Voting is also known as Choice Voting, Preference Voting or the "Alternative Vote" in Australia. IRV eliminates the Wasted Vote Syndrome when there are two strong candidates and one or more non-viable candidates. In this case IRV can deliver cleaner elections and also reduce the perception that minor party candidates only act as "Spoilers."

Unfortunately the Wasted Vote Syndrome reemerges in IRV when there are three or more viable candidates. Thus long time users (such as in Australia) tend to vote strategically rather than for their true preferences. This defeats the top reason for using IRV in the first place.

IRV also has some unfortunate properties that can sometimes generate counter-intuitive or paradoxical results. Review the article The Problem with Instant Runoff Voting to learn more. It is not clear how often these quirky situations would occur in actual elections.

Instant Runoff Voting is more expensive and complicated than Approval Voting and also fails to deliver all of the benefits of Approval Voting in many scenarios. Many CAV members see IRV as better than the current Plurality Voting system, but many others view IRV as a seriously flawed system to be avoided.