Last night’s city council at-large special election is over, and Vincent Orange won with just over 28% of the vote, beating Patrick Mara by about 1,200 votes (Mara had 25.68% of the vote). In Ward 1, which includes Columbia Heights, Bryan Weaver came out on top with 34% of the vote, with Mara second with 23%, Biddle in 3rd and Orange in 4th. Orange took wards 4, 5, 7, and 8, while Mara took 2, 3, and 6. Turnout was less than 10%.
Citywide, however, Vincent Orange’s 28% of the vote means 72% of DC residents didn’t vote for our new councilman. Is it time for instant runoff voting? A lot of people on Twitter and the blogosphere have been talking about it.
Basically it means that instead of voting for one person, you put your preferences for different candidates — 1, 2, and 3 for example. Then if no candidate has a majority of #1 preference votes, the person with the fewest votes is eliminated and their votes are distributed based on the 2nd choice preference, and so on until somebody gets 50% of the votes. It’s best for ballots where there’s many candidates, such as special elections or even at-large seats during regular elections.
What do you think? I think it’d also be good for things like ANC elections, if people can form that many opinions of ANC candidates.
