On July 26th, the North Carolina state House passed a bipartisan bill previously passed by the Senate on the 19th, making way for the use of instant runoff voting (IRV) for statewide elections for judicial office vacancies and to let 10 cities and 10 counties try IRV.

On July 18th, the night before H1024 was passed by the state Senate,  the City Council of Oakland (CA) voted 6-2 to place IRV on the November ballot, folding their current two rounds of voting into one high turnout majority election in November. Representing a combined population of more than 1.6 million people, four cities and counties -- Oakland, Davis (CA), Pierce County (WA) and Minneapolis (MN) -- will vote on IRV this November.

Update:  The North Carolina Governor signed the IRV bill on August 3rd; the pilot program is set to begin in 2007-2008.

[FairVote's Press Release on North Carolina]
[AP Article on IRV in North Carolina]
[San Francisco Chronicle on IRV in Oakland]
[Text of the Oakland Bill]
[Text of the North Carolina Bill]