NYS-IRV

Instant Runoff Voting in Student Government

Why IRV? To assure majority support for candidates, and to eliminate a runoff election which, in addition to delay, can result in lower turnout and a victory by a fraction of the student body. Implementing IRV in your student government educates the future leaders of America. With more students familiar with IRV, it will be easier to educate the voters in the rest of the state and to influence our New York State Legislature to act.

IRV is proliferating at colleges and universities to elect student body officers, including University of California-Berkeley, Carleton College, Harvard University, University of Illinois, Johns Hopkins University, MIT, University of Maryland, Stanford University, Whitman College, University of Wisconsin, Vassar College.

Questionnaire & Guide to Student Government Implementation
(with thanks to the Center for Voting and Democracy, http://www.fairvote.org/schools/index.html)

The CVD school packet contains all the information you need to implement IRV at your school: http://www.fairvote.org/schools/irv.htm

Questionnaire

1. Do your elections sometimes experience more than two candidates running for any one position, i.e., a three- or four-way race?
The only way to guarantee that the candidate is supported by the most students is if s/he is supported by more than 50% of the voters

2. Have candidates ever been declared the winner without receiving a majority of the votes in the election (more than 50%)?
If so, then your student government is vulnerable to spoiled elections where a candidate can win with no minimum amount of votes. On some campuses winners have been declared with as few as 27% of the votes. That leaves 73% of the students disenfranchised, as they opposed the winning candidate.

3. Does your government require a runoff election (a second delayed election) for some races in certain circumstances?
If so, fewer students may turn out for the runoff. Delayed runoff elections on college campuses have evidenced much lower student participation.

4. Are any monetary costs associated with student government elections?
IRV achieves the same goal as a costly runoff election without the delay.

Step-by-Step Guide to Implementation

1. Research your constitution and by-laws to understand any particulars to implementing IRV at your school.

2. Introduce the idea to elected officals in the legislature and executive cabinet or any additional relevant person. Present pertinent materials and seek their feedback. Their feedback is important to gain their interest and involvement in the proposal's success.

3. Host a forum with a NYS-IRV or CVD speaker explaining IRV and seeking input from the audience. Convince elected officials to attend, both from the campus and local municipal and county government. Take notes of opposing arguments and concerns in order to address them.

4. Follow up with concerned individuals and present well phrased answers to their concerns. Collect e-mails at the forum and respond en masse, or write a letter to your newspaper. Education is important. The big obstacle to reform is ignorance.

5. Meet with Elections Chair(s), election coordinator and/or relevant officials. Discuss practicality and implementation. Solicit their support

6. Draft a resolution or amendment to implement IRV. Circulate drafts to all the relevant officials and legislators. Seek their feedback on the language so that the resolution will gain their support. (You will find helpful materials at CVD,www.fairvote.org, including newspaper articles, sample ballots, brochures for student government.)

7. Introduce the resolution to the legislature or relevant subcommittee.

8. Lobby the government as the resolution comes up for a vote. Educate the student body, which will put more pressure on the government.

9. Meet with Elections Chair(s) again, once the resolution is passed, to ensure early implementation of IRV. This may mean writing necessary computer programming and/or running a practice election.

NYS-IRV www.nysirv.org February, 2007

1.	Do your elections sometimes experience more than two candidates running for any one position, i.e., a three- or four-way race? The only way to guarantee that the candidate is supported by the most students is if s/he is supported by more than 50% of the voters
2.	Have candidates ever been declared the winner without receiving a majority of the votes in the election (more than 50%)? If so, then your student government is vulnerable to spoiled elections where a candidate can win with no minimum amount of votes. On some campuses winners have been declared with as few as 27% of the votes. That leaves 73% of the students disenfranchised, as they opposed the winning candidate.
3.	Does your government require a runoff election (a second delayed election) for some races in certain circumstances? If so, fewer students may turn out for the runoff. Delayed runoff elections on college campuses have evidenced much lower student participation.
4.	Are any monetary costs associated with student government elections? IRV achieves the same goal as a costly runoff election without the delay.

1.	Research your constitution and by-laws to understand any particulars to implementing IRV at your school.
2.	Introduce the idea to elected officals in the legislature and executive cabinet or any additional relevant person. Present pertinent materials and seek their feedback. Their feedback is important to gain their interest and involvement in the proposal's success.
3.	Host a forum with a NYS-IRV or CVD speaker explaining IRV and seeking input from the audience. Convince elected officials to attend, both from the campus and local municipal and county government. Take notes of opposing arguments and concerns in order to address them.
4.	Follow up with concerned individuals and present well phrased answers to their concerns. Collect e-mails at the forum and respond en masse, or write a letter to your newspaper. Education is important. The big obstacle to reform is ignorance.
5.	Meet with Elections Chair(s), election coordinator and/or relevant officials. Discuss practicality and implementation. Solicit their support
6.	Draft a resolution or amendment to implement IRV. Circulate drafts to all the relevant officials and legislators. Seek their feedback on the language so that the resolution will gain their support. (You will find helpful materials at CVD,www.fairvote.org, including newspaper articles, sample ballots, brochures for student government.)
7.	Introduce the resolution to the legislature or relevant subcommittee.
8.	Lobby the government as the resolution comes up for a vote. Educate the student body, which will put more pressure on the government.
9.	Meet with Elections Chair(s) again, once the resolution is passed, to ensure early implementation of IRV. This may mean writing necessary computer programming and/or running a practice election.