Pierce County experiments with Instant Runoff Voting

David Ammons, the AP political writer for the state, writes about our experiment in Pierce County. This article was published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Bellingham Herald, the Olympian and the Tri-City Herald. The article does a nice job of describing the system and the motivation of the various proponents and opponents.

One of the current and past opponents, Representative Sam Hunt (D-Olympia), does not see there is a problem with our current election system. He is quoted as saying IRV is fixing a problem which does not exist. I guess the pick-a-party primary must be popular in Olympia.

Representative Hunt, voters in Pierce County do not like the pick-a-party primary and want to try alternatives. Indeed, the pick-a-party primary is unpopular throughout the state. Instant runoff voting gets us back as close as possible to our beloved blanket primary. Politicians make not like this idea, but voters likely will.