Support Election Integrity by waiting until we have legal procedures to pilot IRV in NC!

In July 2008, the NC General Assembly passed SB1263, extending the IRV pilot program for 3 years beginning in 2009. Please see http://gopetition.com/petitions/oppose-instant-runoff-voting.html for more information about IRV's history in NC and elsewhere.

Only two communities allowed their elections to be experimented with, but only one single race in one of NC's 548 municipalities was "decided" using IRV - and that was not a glitch but a miserable failure.

IRV failed to deliver the one big thing supporters claimed it would do - ensure a majority winner in a single election. 3022 votes were cast in the first round, but after all the ballots were exhausted, the top vote-getter only had 1401 votes - less than the 50% plus one vote majority (or 1512) needed to win. With no majority win, Cary voters should have had a traditional runoff election - but that would have meant that IRV failed.

Ignoring the failure in Cary, IRV supporters filed press releases and submitted op-ed articles all over the country claiming that IRV worked in Cary. But still no counties elected to be part of the experiment in 2008. Or was it that the State Board of Elections didn't push IRV in 2008 because they knew it was a risk to election integrity in early 2007?

IRV's failure in Cary in 2007 and the absence of any IRV testing on 2008 didn't stop IRV supporters from pushing for a 3-year extension to the original IRV pilot. They were not successful in getting the same blank check and free ride to have three more years to experiment with NC elections.

Election integrity advocates worked hard to get the following protections included in the bill that were not included in the original request for the extension:

1) The local governing board of the jurisdiction subject to the election must a) approve participation in the pilot and b) cooperate with the county and state Board of Elections to develop and implement a candidate and voter education plan.

2) The State Board of Elections will consult with the UNC School of Government to develop goals, standards and criteria for implementation and evaluation of the pilot program consistent with general election law that the pilot program shall be conducted by. Those goals, standards and criteria shall be developed by January 1, 2009.

The Governor hasn't even signed the bill yet, but already IRV advocacy groups are roaming around North Carolina, "discussing" IRV with interested citizens. Obviously, the well-funded IRV advocacy groups are going to take advantage of the low-turnout June runoff election to sell taxpayers on the need to save money and sell IRV as the way to do it - even though other states have thoroughly studied the issue and have found IRV to be more expensive than rarely used traditional runoff elections.

IRV supporters aren't telling taxpayers that the one and only time that an NC election went to IRV, no one got the required number of votes and therefore there should have been a traditional runoff election, thus proving that IRV does not ensure a majority winner with only one election.

The procedures used for IRV elections in 2007 didn't follow NC election laws, so it is a bit premature for these groups to go out selling IRV to sign up communities before legal IRV procedures can be developed - if that is even possible.

Protecting our democracy by keeping our verified voting standards is not a special or partisan issue. North Carolina voters of every background (republican, democrat, liberal, conservative, disabled groups, minority groups, mainstream groups) agree that we do not want any changes to our voting which may, in any way, compromise the integrity of our votes.

Please join in our effort to prevent the State and County BOE's and IRV advocacy groups from misrepresenting IRV to local communities and getting them to sign up for IRV before legal procedures can be developed. Please sign this petition and ask your friends to do so as well.

PLEASE - NORTH CAROLINA VOTERS ONLY! ALL OTHERS ARE FREE TO CONTACT ME FOR INFORMATION, BUT I NEED NC VOTERS ONLY!