Forum Post: IRV The Best Solution

We will never have a perfect government 100% efficient and free of corruption. The problem is the current national political system is operating at about 9% efficiency and collectively we don't like the consequences that stem from that. But what can we do?!? I'm not asking you to abandon your personal issues that you care about. But I am asking you to put them on the back burner. If you care about education or health care or corporate greed...just chill out for a second...we can get to those things, but it really won't be possible with how our current system of elected government works.

Think of running America like racing a Nascar or operating a Nimitz Class aircraft carrier. Once the driver of the car or the commander of the vessel is choosen they don't think about anything else but the road or making sure their ship is ready for operations. Nobody is going to come in and replace the driver in the middle of a lap around the track. We need to change our political system so that our representatives don't have to wage a dirty mud slinging battle all the time instead of focusing on their job which is to govern.

In the "real world" (the business world), if I need something done I can't easily do myself or would not be worth my time to do myself (like government) I can chose and hire someone to do it for me...like pick up my trash, cater my luncheons, host my conferences. There are hundreds of contractors waiting to do that job. If I don't like one...I merely fire that one and choose another. Unfortunately, there are always only two contractors we can choose from for elected office...a Democrat, or a Republican. Yeah? why is that? Aren't we a free people? don't we collectively believe in the freedom to choose who we want? No you are not free to choose. You must vote for either a Democrat or a Republican if you want your vote to matter in the election. Why is that?

Answer--Our voting system...you vote for only one person. When I talk to people they tend to have strong opinions against a candidate rather than having strong feelings for their candidate. We have an opposition voting system, you vote to keep someone you don't want from getting into office rather than voting for someone you actually want to be in office.

Solution-- IRV

Instant runoff voting is a voting system that allows you to rank the candidates rather than vote for just one. This simple fix does the following things.

1) Gives the voter more control of who will represent them.

2) Makes negative attack campaigning not as effective as positive policy based campaigning. Negative attacks are very effective against one opponent...if you have 3-4 serious opponents, negative attacks only get you so far...politicians will need to stand on their merits as opposed to their opponents flaws.

3) Shifts political power from corporations and big money politicians to the voters. A corporation can easily buy off two political parties...first you pay one...then you pay the other...but you can't pay off every single voter.

I challenge the entire Occupy Community to learn about Instant Runoff Voting and consider making this the Number One cause of the movement. Also on this forum, please respond with support or criticism of IRV.