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Campaign Reform
The Automatic Runoff
Shaun Kerry, M.D.
The purpose of the runoff is to
prevent your vote from being lost. The automatic runoff is used to
save the voters from having to make multiple trips to the polls.
This process would be very simple for the voter. You |
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don't have to know all of the details, but for those of you who want
to know, here it is:
This is best illustrated by an example.
Suppose you have 3 candidates: one conservative, and
two liberal. Let's say that the conservative candidate gets 40% of
the votes, liberal candidate A gets 35% of the votes, and the liberal
candidate B gets 25% of the votes. Under our present system, the
conservative candidate would get ALL of the electoral votes.
Now suppose we required a runoff election.
This means that we would eliminate the candidate with the
least votes, and have another election. Let's revert to the
aforementioned example. If there was a runoff election, the
conservative candidate would run against liberal candidate A. Most
likely, liberal candidate A would win. This seems more fair, but
requires two trips to the polls.
If we use the automatic runoff, we can accomplish
the same result, but with only one trip to the polls.
And the process will work whether we have three candidates or twenty.
The voter simply votes for as many candidates as he wishes, but he ranks
them in order of numerical preference: 1,2,3,4,5 . . .
and so on. By ranking the candidates, you are telling the computer
that you prefer candidate 1, but if he or she can't win, then you would
prefer number 2, and so on down the line.
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In doing this, your first choice would
count as it always has. In the event of a runoff, the computer
would know in advance how you would vote, and it would cast your ballot
for you automatically. Of course, you wouldn't have to rank all of
the candidates. And if you wanted to, you could vote for only one.
You may simply have no preference among some of the others.
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When the votes were tallied, the single
candidate receiving the least votes would be eliminated by
the computer, leaving ninety-nine candidates. The process would be
repeated, leaving ninety-eight candidates. This would continue,
eliminating one candidate at a time, entirely by computer, until ten or
so candidates remained. The computer would stop at this point, and
the finalists would be announced to the public.
The
General Election
The finalists would be given wide media
coverage, with a wide variety of interviews and debates.
After a reasonable period of time, there would be a general (final)
election. Each voter would cast his vote, ranking the candidates
according to his preference. The computer would then repeat the
automatic runoff process, eliminating one candidate at a time, until the
winner was chosen.
This process was primarily intended for
presidential elections, and elections for lesser offices
could be simplified. Voter confidentiality should be maintained by
a system of controlled access to the computer data. No single
person would have access to all of the information.
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