County next target for instant runoff voting
BUT EVEN IF APPROVED, IT COULD BE YEARS BEFORE IT HAPPENS

By Rick Barry

City of Sarasota voters have already given overwhelming approval to a system of instant runoff voting, arguably the fairest, least expensive way to decide among three or more candidates for a single office when none of them earns a majority of votes, and making another round of campaigning and a second election unnecessary.

Now, the group that brought IRV to the city, concerned that the Sarasota County Charter Review Board didn’t give the concept serious consideration last week, is about to start another petition drive to bring instant runoff voting to single-seat elections (sheriff, elections supervisor, court clerk, tax collector, property appraiser) countywide.

That petition likely also will include a provision making all corporate and business contributions to candidates’ campaigns illegal in Sarasota County, a concept about 80 percent of city voters approved, a margin even higher than the 78 percent approval of instant runoffs. It may also attempt to limit contributions by candidates to their own campaigns to $5,000 or $10,000, leveling the playing field for office-seekers of varying means.

The county charter does not limit ballot questions to a single subject, as does the state constitution.

Anthony Lorenzo, the chairman of the grassroots Coalition for Instant Runoff Voting, made a presentation to the county’s Charter Review Board last Wednesday night in hopes the board would consider the proposal soon, in light of its overwhelming popularity among city voters, and move toward putting it on the November ballot countywide.

But the board adjourned without action and set its next meeting for June 25, four months away, too late for the question’s inclusion on the November ballot.

Lorenzo shouldn’t take it personally, review board member Stefan Butz said. “The board used to meet regularly, four times a year. Now we meet just once in a while, when the leadership thinks we need to, maybe twice a year.

“I do think we need to meet on a more regular basis,” he said. “As for an instant runoff, I personally like it. But if I were [Lorenzo], I’d pursue every avenue … It takes at least a year before anything can get through us.”

“Oh, we’re going ahead with the petition drive now, definitely,” Lorenzo said. “At the very least, if we are unable to get the 12,000 signatures we’ll need to put it on the ballot countywide, if we just have 3,000 or so, even that should help convince the [charter review board or county commission] of the public support for the system, and then maybe they’ll take some action [to put it on the ballot].”

In instant runoff voting, voters rank the candidates in a multiple-candidate race - 1 for their favorite, 2 for their second favorite, etc. - rather than just checking a single name. When the votes are tallied, if no candidate wins outright, the lowest vote getter is eliminated and his second-place votes are distributed appropriately. The process is repeated until one candidate gets a majority plus one vote, and therefore wins the election.

It eliminates having a candidate with only minority support - in a five-way race, say - making it into a runoff and winning the office as a compromise, or the choice of a fervent few. It also eliminates the tactic in which supporters of one candidate put up a spoiler candidate to draw votes from a more popular candidate, thereby allowing their minority candidate to win.

It also eliminates the cost of runoff elections, which typically draw very light turnouts and give the best-financed candidate a huge advantage, and saves residents the time and gas spent to return to their polling places.

Instant runoff voting even improved the level of public discourse in one of the half-dozen American cities that use IRV now, Cary, N.C. Candidates there, including Cary City Councilman Erv Portman said he was convinced that now “Candidates listened more to their constituents.

“Where before, if a voter told you he was voting for another candidate, you were likely to just walk away. But with an instant runoff, you stay and keep the communication going. You want that person to choose you as their second choice.”

But, there won’t be instant runoffs here anytime soon. Software necessary to break down and tally instant runoff votes hasn’t been certified by the federal government or the state of Florida. And because the demand is thus far so tiny, no major software company has bothered to create any, since the costs of writing, testing and certifying the software are so great, elections officials said.