IRV in Action:

Utah Republican Party Nominations for Congress, May 2002

In May 2002, the Utah Republican Party used IRV to select among several candidates for the Congressional races. In CD-3, the first round was decisive with a majority. In CD-1, the first round leader received a majority in the 9th round. In CD-2, the victor was in second place in the 1st through the 8th round, took over 1st place in the 9th round, and became the majority winner in the 11th round.

CD-1

There were 10 candidates. In the first round, the leader, Rob Bishop, garnered 29% of the vote, and went on to win the election with 57.5% of the vote in the 9th round. There were three candidates remaining in the 8th round; when the 3rd place candidate was eliminated in the 9th round, the votes transferred brought the majority to Bishop, the first round leader.

CD-2

There were 12 candidates. In the first round, the ultimate winner, Tim Bridgewater, was in second place with 20.5% vs. 23.0% for the leader, John Swallow. Swallow held onto his lead until the 9th round when the 5th place contender was eliminated. Bridgewater took over the lead in the 9th round with 29.8% of the total original votes, and in the 10th round held the lead with 39.2% of the total original votes. (Note that a few voters did not rank all 12 candidates.) The votes transferred from the 3rd place candidate in the 11th round brought Bridgewater a 54.5% majority.

NYS-IRV

www.nysirv.org

September, 2002