Stumbled across a recent post by rightie Jack the Blogger on Stan Jones' entry into the gubernatorial race, which had echoes of the complaints recently levied against Ralph Nader:
Jones was instrumental in 2006 helping elect Democrat Jon Tester to the U.S. Senate. Jones received over 10,000 votes in that election. Tester beat incumbent Conrad Burns by around 3,600 votes.
We've seen other races where a third-party candidate influenced the outcome of a race, The third-party candidate helped defeat a major-party candidate who they mostly agreed with on the issues and allowed the other candidate, whom they disagreed with on most issues, win the contest.
That's why Montana should have a run-off election when a state-wide candidate does not get 50% plus one vote. The run-off election would be between the top two vote getters.
This situation reminds of the push for a type of election reform called "Instant-runoff voting." Basically, it's a ballot that allows the voter to rank the candidates in order of preference; when the votes are counted, a simple formula is enacted that counts a voter's lower choices should their higher choice not garner enough votes. (Check out this IRV advocacy site for campaigns, cities where it currently exists, and legislation in the works.)
In short, it's a system that encourages third-, fourth-, or fifth-party candidates, where voters can safely vote for their favorite candidate without the fear that her vote actually benefits the worst candidate. (See "2000 Presidential Election" for details.)
Of course, whether this system of voting would actually, say, make the Democratic party more progressive or the Republican party more libertarian is questionable. After all, in this system larger parties have less incentive to adopt third-party platform planks - they know that voters opting for someone else will probably not hurt them at the ballot box, unlike today's system.
And it's also unlikely that IRV would propel any third-party candidate into elected office. If the Green Party couldn't elect its candidate into the San Francisco mayor's office in 2003, does it really have enough support to win a major office anywhere? If Ron Paul can't win more than quarter of Montana's caucus voters, can a libertarian candidate win any state?
To me, IRV seems like a wash. I'd vote for it, but I'd be against using up my time or resources getting it on the ballot.
What say you? |
