IRV in San Francisco Provides Lessons for New York City, Other Major Cities

New York City, for example, employs a two-round runoff system to try and nominate citywide candidates with greater voter support than in a simple plurality primary. Indeed, several winners in non-citywide offices won with less than 30% of the vote. This year, however, depending on the outcome of the recent fractured mayoral primary, the city will potentially face a compulsory runoff in mayoral primary at an estimated cost of more than $10 million. Even worse, the first place candidate is poised to be only a few votes shy of avoiding the runoff, and the second place candidate has already conceded -- making the $10 million runoff an expensive formality. New York could learn from the San Francisco model, and implement IRV to produce party nominees with the support of more voters in one round instead of two, thereby saving millions of dollars, avoiding drops in turnout, and promoting more civil campaigning.
[ Download Rich DeLeon's Study at The Usual Suspects - .pdf 404 KB ]
[ More Information About IRV in San Francisco ]
[ New York City Plurality Elections 2005 ]
[ Mother Jones Calls for IRV ]
[ Gotham Gazette Calls for IRV ]