Beautiful. Fantastic news! Thanks, Haik!

 

I can't believe Dan showed that poorly. I am soooooooooooooooooooo disappointed. Dan you will be back I know it, keep your head up.

 

And when you come back, be a little more specific.

 

yes to the above, and perhaps serve in another elected official first.

 

Wright wins election, this bull shit second and third place voting should be ended now. Kiss is a product of IRV and nothing else.

Give the people what they want, Mayor Wright.

 

Kiss was favored by more people than Wright. You just have to accept that. Don't worry, Wright can still stink up the statehouse.

 

But Kiss wasn't favored by more people, he was favored as the second best choice. The most people voted for Kurt Wright, thus he should win. Its not about him being a democrat or republican, its about the voters of Burlington getting the candidate they choose.

 

If there had been a regular runoff the outcome would have been the same. It just wouild have cost the city more.
Wright was favored by 32 percent. Is it fair that he should be mayor when 68 percent voted against him? IRV works.

 

Kurt failed to get a majority to vote for him, it's that simple

 

You're both incorrect, whoever you anonymous asses are. Show your selves you ignorant cowards.

 

On what planet does 32 percent represent a majority?

 

Show your selves you ignorant cowards.

"Taylor" doesn't tell us anything about you either, you know. You're basically anonymous too.

 

Haik. As far as I could tell, you were the first to report the victory. And your blog was the only place for any in depth information about the mayoral candidates. Quite an accomplishment. Much appreciated.

 

Much appreciated.

Right back at ya! Thanks for reading!

 

Anyone remember when we got round-by-round numbers last time?

 

In truth, it may have been the third choices of the supporters of the third-place candidate who decided this since anyone who votes Montroll/Smith would have had their third choice counted. The fact is, speculative votes cast with respect to an unknown final two "decided" the election after three rounds of IRV hypothetical legerdemain. It is completely unknown what all voters would have actually done if presented with an actual choice of Wright vs. Kiss.

 

"Anyone who votes for Montroll/Smith would have had their third choice counted." No, they would have had their second choice counted, unless their second choice had also been eliminated.

 

I hear what your saying.. but as a voter, i would feel a WHOLE lot better with a real runoff election, and not "McVoting". and if its good enough for an office holding election, why not a school bond issue? or a moran plant vote?


Haik.. Thanks for your coverage

 

and I agree Kurt should do a recount, AND bring up the legitimacy of IRV as a whole

 

with a school bond issue or moran plant issue there are two choices: yes or no. There is no need for IRV. In an election with 5 candidate, IRV ensures the a person with 33 percent of them vote is not elected. It resolves the election when the most people are participating, as opposed to a run off when drastically fewer people participate. Plus there is the considerable expense of a separate runoff. Being unsatisfied with the result is not enough of an argument.

 

Surprised at the low turnout esp. after a historic election last November. Although I like IRV, wasn't one of the goals of it to "encourage" voter turnout? Maybe it's too early. Still lots of sour grapes on the vine.

On another note, how much will Kurt's recount cost the city?

 

NO. BULLSHIT! There IS a multiple choice for the bond issues! For example:

School Bond Issue.
A) Increase By 15%
b) Increase by 5%
c) Decrease by 5%
d) Decrease by 15%
e) Status quo.

Give people the choice of either funding the BLOATED school budgets
by x or y amount OR give them the option of slashing the budget or keeping the same as last time is fair. This gives people the choice of sending the message to the school systems that they are wasting their tax dollars year after year.

My bitch about IRV has a lot to do with the fact that it will ALWAYS slant to the Liberal base.

My bitch about school budgets is that whenever they get defeated, all these lib parents raise enough signatures to vote on it AGAIN, and AGAIN, until it passes. That doesn't cost money?

Same could go with 5 valid proposals for the Moran plant instead of wasting tax dollars on study after study.

If you are going to tout IRV as a cure all to public opinion. put your money where your mouth is and have it apply to ALL vote-able issues.

if not, call it what it is. lazy frigging politics.

 

Oh, for god's sake. Go to the board meetings. Give your input there. Organize and get people find people who agree with you. If you can find more people, run a candidate. If there are more people who agree with you than the "liberal base", you get what you want. It's how it's done. Or you can whine on a blog all day long.

 

or you you can just be lazy and let the 90% of the voters who are stupid/lazy fill in the "runner up" positions, skewing vox populi because "god-forbid" we intrude on their precious schedules of beer swilling or tv watching. in a second run-off election.

I guarantee that if the numbers were completely reversed between Kurt and bob, the libs and progs would be screaming bloody murder.

and BTW, I do go to my towns meetings, both DRB and planning boards. and our town meeting are a heck of a lot more democratic than the abomination burlington calls voting.

 

Wow, nice attitude, istech. Is it safe to assume, then, that you speak for Kurt Wright by saying "90% of the voters... are stupid/lazy"? And so the sheep's clothing crumples to the ground...

Speaking of, your bond proposal above is overly simplistic. Just imagine you are the head of a city department (DPW, Electric, Schools, Airport, etc.) and want a bond. Think you're going to give people the option to underfund your financing needs?

Perhaps you are suggesting that bond questions should be mandated to provide some sort of scale to voters? In which case, your proposal to micromanage governmental decisions by increasing regulations will surely fall flat among your neo-right peers.

 

Ummm, in Alaska it's the right-wingers who are bigger supporters of IRV.

 

IRV is inferior style of voting in cases where no one gets majority.

A old-school run-off gives voters another chance to select among two canidates. With IRV you are voting for second among more than two.

For example if I voted for Smith in a 4-way race and the top two were Wright and Kiss - I should spend my next vote on one of those and not on Simpson or Montroll. End of story. IRV is inferior democracy. Cost of elections is the worst argument I have ever heard when it comes to IRV.

By the way Haik, you did a service. But now - and I say this out of kindness - you may go back to being irrelevant.

 

You're very kind. Thank you.

 

FUCK IRV

Last time I vote in a mayoral election.

 

Whine ass.