Instant Runoff Voting

Just got back from State Board of Elections training in Asheville.

The weather was lovely, though walking up those hills certainly challenged this flatlander's legs.

Yesterday while I was being trained, the State Board of Elections held a well-publicized meeting, packed with press and TV. The media wanted to learn what action the State Board would take concerning failure of the governor's campaign to report a number of private plane flights. As soon as they learned the outcome, most left.

They missed a very important story - the election of a replacement for Judge Jim Wynn of the NC Court of Appeals, recently appointed to the federal bench. Judge Wynn's appointment created a vacancy "less than 64 days before the date of the second primary." Under state law adopted in 2006, this mandates an election to fill the vacancy, on the same day as the election for members of the General Assembly, using "instant runoff voting."

This requires voters to rank their choices. If one candidate doesn't win a majority of votes on the first round of counting, then the second or possibly third choice votes will be counted. A very clever system to avoid calling a special election.

The filing period opened yesterday and will close August 31. We won't know how many candidates there are until then.

If there are more than two candidates, North Carolina will become the first state in the nation to hold an instant runoff for a statewide election.

Details to follow.