HVA Does IRV

This should be interesting: Looks like the Humboldt Voter's Association is going to do a demonstration of Instant Runoff Voting, aka Ranked Choice Voting, on June 6. This will coincide with election day. They'll be polling on the 4th District Supervisorial race. I'll be interested in seeing the results.

As an aside, our very own mresquan is mentioned in the article, albeit under his alias, Mark Konkler.

I've been fairly supportive of IRV in the past, as I've said here long ago. In fact, IRV was among the first issues discussed after I started this blog. I've somewhat cooled a bit on IRV since then, mostly because I think it might well only give a majority even more power than they already have. This is the complaint many on the Right have had against IRV all along.

Take Humboldt County and the 4th District race, for example: This is a fairly left leaning county, probably very strong left leaning county in some areas like Arcata, Petrolia and Trinidad. Assuming the electorate had the choice, the majority might well choose all left leaning candidates as their first choices.

This would almost ensure a continuous string of lefties in office, with the minority likely being pushed further and further out of the decision making process over time as the majority consolidates more and more power.

Of course, many local races are supposed to be non- partisan, but as we've seen lately, non- partisan races around here are anything but that. Sure, they're not exactly a Republican vs. Democrat issue, but they certainly do seem to be a Left vs. Right issue, as I see it.

I'm leery of anything that gives a group of people,especially a majority, the idea that they have a mandate to do anything they want to everyone else.

But, I'll grudgingly admit it does make some sense to me that we try to get a reasonable consensus on what candidate is acceptable to the greatest number of voters. I suppose that's why I gave IRV a plug in one of my comments on the Sacramento Bee web site the other day, despite my concerns.

It's too bad so many things are at stake that we have to worry so much about who gets elected or how they got there.