As of 12:57 today, the State Board of Elections is showing Bob McDonnell ahead of Creigh Deeds by 357 votes. McDonnell lost 89 votes in the last 24 hours. At this rate, Deeds will be Attorney General by Friday.
How about those 1500 folks who couldn’t pick the evil of two lessors or vice versa? Their write-in votes could have been decisive, but they decided to pull a Larry Sabato and vote for Thomas Jefferson, Mickey Mouse, or some other worthy.
(comments below)
Anyone have odds on Creigh actually winning?
No more “my vote doesn’t count” whining from anybody — that is less than one vote for every five precincts. Thousands voted Kaine/Bolling/Deeds (it is hard to imagine anybody voted Byrne/McDonnell but I guess somebody must have.) I have a pretty high confidence level in the process in Virginia, but it is subject to human error and temptation (on both sides.) We’ll be telling our grandkids about this one.
I would think that those 1500 votes were Potts/liberal votes that could easily reconcile voting for Byrnes but couldn’t reconcile voting for a conservative or a moderate.
*This is the same post as the one I deleted with the exception of a spelling correction. A real ‘duh’ correction, she says sheepishly.
And, in Southwest Virginia there were many who voted Kilgore/Bolling/Deeds. If one looks closely, one will find that, of all the candidates, Creigh Deeds had the broadest support across regions and demographics of any of the candidates.
P.S. Before I’m “shipwrecked,” let me say that I am a member of the Deeds recount team.
Good for you, CG2. And in a couple of months, when the Republicans are through gutting each other, debating who is sufficiently conservative and crying in their beer or whining on Fox, they might get some troops out onto the recount field. But of course by then it will be too late. Well, for once, our side has Tony Troy. (Can we send him back?)
Landslide Win For Election Reform
Takoma Park votes 84% for instant runoff voting
TAKOMA PARK, MD – In an advisory ballot measure placed on the ballot by a 7-0 vote of the Takoma Park city council, fully 84% of voters voted for the proposal to have future city elections use instant runoff voting. A majority of the city council is committed to implementing the new system in time for the mayoral and city council races in 2007.
Rob Richie, director of FairVote- The Center for Voting and Democracy commented, “This was a huge win for better elections. Instant runoff voting is an essential component of the future of reform.”
Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., a FairVote board member, applauded the vote. “Today’s overwhelming victory for instant runoff voting in Takoma Park is the latest signal that the American people are ready to upgrade American democracy. All across this nation our citizens deserve an electoral process that gives us real choices, the freedom to vote for our favorite choices and the power of majority rule.”
Used to elect the most powerful offices in cities like San Francisco (CA) and Burlington (VT) and in nations like Australia, Ireland and Great Britain, instant runoff voting ensures candidates win single-seat offices with majority support. It accomplishes the goals of a traditional runoff election in one efficient round of voting. Voters indicate both their favorite and their runoff choices. If no candidate receives a majority of first choices, the weak candidates are eliminated and their supporters’ votes are counted for their runoff choices. It contrasts with conventional plurality elections which allow a candidate to win without majority support and traditional runoff elections which require two separate and often costly elections.
More at: http://www.fairvote.org
Takoma Park for IRV: http://www.takomaparkforirv.com
I definitley agree with Steve’s comment about people who say their vote doesn’t count. Definitley not true after mcdonnell v. deeds.
I sometimes flatter myself by supposing that all my campaign acivities taken together (phone calling, putting up signs, working the polls, etc. etc.) may have gotten the democrats 20 or 30 votes. So that could be say 5 or 6 percent of the current margin. In other words, five or six fewer volunteers on either side of this campaign would have changed the outcome. We should remember this for next time.
Actually that math is a little off. 11 volunteers with time commitments similar to mine could have changed the outcome.
Instant runoff elections sounds like another verion of voting for “None of the Above” without the option of actually choosing someone else.
Instant runoff solves some problems, but introduces many others we don’t see now because we don’t have it.
Short form: The goal of a campaign is to get people out to vote who, if they show up, will vote for your candidate.
With runoff, you do this by running two candidates, one which appeals to your base, and one that is more “mainstream” and would have been the candidate in normal elections.
Your base wouldn’t have shown up, but now that they are there, and get to vote for the “right” candidate, it harms them little to say their “2nd” choice is the mainstream candidate.
Or conversely, it can be gamed to push the mainstream voters to the extreme candidates.
Louisiana runs non-instant runoffs, which have the advantage of eliminating the people who only really cared for one candidate and don’t think it is worth their time to pick between the two main winners.
Instant runoff makes it too easy for people to cast second votes with NO cost to them.
Instant runoff gives voters the chance to more fully express THEIR choices.
But some politicos would rather blame Nader than empower voters.
Speaking of empowering voters…
While the Rockbridge Greens did not endorse any candidates this election cycle, we were quite involved in a referendum campaign. The Rockbridge
Greens were one of the lead organizations in organizing a referendum on
staggered terms for our board of supervisors.
The referendum was opposed by a majority of the current supervisors. One
even stated publicly that “only a few losers and has-beens want this.” Lacking support from the supervisors we were forced to get petitions signed by 10% of registered voters to place the question on the ballot. Over 1600
petitions were turned in to meet the requirement of 1200.
A broad coalition was formed supported by all three political parties, numerous civic groups, and our entire general assembly delegation. It was strange indeed to see posters with “Paid for by the Rockbridge Green Party Committee” printed on them at the tables of both the Republicans and Democrats throughout the campaign season.
On election day several of us worked the polls urging a “yes” vote. Final result: the referendum passed with an 87% yes vote. Staggered terms will
begin in Rockbridge County following the 2007 election.
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