What’s next for instant runoff voting?

Now that the Memphis referendum elections are over, and passions on all sides have had time to cool, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned, and what our next steps are.

First, we’ve learned that Memphis voters meant what they said in 2008. They want term limits of two terms, not three or more. And they want Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), where they rank candidates first, second and third, so they can be assured the winner has majority support, but without the trouble, expense, and low turnout of separate runoff elections.

Certain stubborn incumbent officials may continue to deny this, but the numbers don’t lie.

Last month, 60 percent of voters rejected extending term limits; 63 percent rejected the idea of replacing IRV with the old system of runoff elections; and 54 percent rejected the idea of replacing IRV with a plurality system, whereby any candidate with the most votes could win, even if they were well below 50 percent.

Notably, the percentages varied for the three ballot questions. That shows voters were actually thinking about what they were voting on, rather than just voting reflexively.

Even more notably, the percentage support for IRV in the election was even higher than that for term limits, confounding the conventional wisdom that extended term limits would suffer the strongest defeat.

IRV takeaways

First and foremost, as elected officials tasked with carrying out the will of the people, a great show of good faith would be for City Council to assist the Election Commission with funding an IRV voter education campaign for the 2019 city election. A robust voter education program is a best practice whenever a new election system starts.

We expect our group, and other private groups like the League of Women Voters and the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center, to provide extensive voter outreach next year. And the Election Commission has already indicated its plan to have at each polling place in October at least two poll workers whose sole job would be to explain to voters how to cast an IRV ballot.

But a small amount of city funding for IRV’s inaugural use is not too much to ask. We’d say $60,000 seems like a fair amount, but the best judge would be the Election Commission itself.

This request is reasonable because the referendum’s IRV takeaway is clear. Memphians decisively supported IRV in 2008 when they had to vote “FOR,” and they supported it in 2018 when they had to vote “AGAINST.” They supported it last month against not one but two alternatives. They did so despite misleading ballot language which tended to tilt voters toward repeal.

And, they did so despite an 11thhour, $40,000 tax-funded pro-repeal campaign.

Timely implementation

Beyond voter education, the City Council should stop its efforts to obstruct the will of the people. At a minimum, this means no more tax dollars for lobbyists to ask the state legislature to outlaw IRV, doing an end-run around not one but two referendum elections.

And no more tax dollars to fight IRV in court. Unless the City Council is itself sued, there is no reason for them to be involved in any litigation over IRV’s legality.

Another responsible action would be for the Council to take substantive ownership of the IRV process. Election Administrator Linda Phillips says she’d like some policy guidance from the Council on certain technical issues on IRV implementation -- for example, how to deal with tie votes.

While we may not agree that such guidance is legally required, it’s certainly a good idea. Better to have our elected representatives decide such things than leave it to an un-elected election commission (or a judge, if it comes to that).

Council members, civic leaders and voters who supported repeal no doubt have sincere concerns about IRV. But the time for that debate is over. The people have spoken, twice. The responsible thing to do now is to listen.

Myron Lowery is a former chair of the Memphis City Council and a board member of the Save IRV organization. Dr. Rosalyn Nichols is organizing and lead pastor of Freedom’s Chapel Christian Church (DOC) and an officer of Save IRV.