Monday, October 25, 2010

Two websites provide background and instructions, including a video, about the Instant Runoff Voting method being used this year in three local Superior Court races and one statewide Court of Appeals election. The Court of Appeals race, which is the nation’s first use of IRV in a statewide general election, has a certain historical fascination. In 2008, a black man was at the top of every ballot in North Carolina, in the race for US President. In 2010, a black man is at the bottom of every ballot, in the NC Court of Appeals IRV contest involving 13 candidates. Both men have quite unusual names: one is Barack Obama; the other is Cressie Thigpen. In both cases, voting a “straight party” ticket would not include a vote for or against them; voters must vote in the Presidential and Court elections separately. Both men graduated from prestigious law schools, taught at other law schools, and gained prominent endorsements across race and party lines for their campaigns; Thigpen is endorsed by white Republican and Democratic former chief justices of the NC Supreme Court. Obama and Thigpen were both born in the month of August. And so on.