David Cobb gets it wrong about Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)

David Cobb (Green party candidate for US President 2004, in response to the top questions from slashdot.org; our italics):

Instant Runoff Voting will be used in San Francisco this November and a number of other cities and counties have approved of using it or are considering doing so. Instant Runoff Voting, or IRV, solves the perceived "spoiler" problem because you can vote for all the candidates you like; you don't have to make a lesser-evil choice. I encourage people to learn more about IRV at Center for Voting and Democracy.

Good intentions David! – but factually incorrect, as you can see from the Peru 2006 election – which occurred soon after Cobb uttered that wishful quote – where Humala voters, by voting for their true favorite candidate, caused, under runoff (or IRV), their greatest-evil worst-choice candidate to win. If they'd only voted for their lesser-evil Flores instead of their true favorite, then she'd have won. Gee, I guess that was exactly the sort of "spoiler scenario" Cobb here, fueled by propaganda from the CVD, was wrongly claiming impossible under IRV. Oops.


Return to main page