Here is a sample letter which you can copy and edit (or not) and send to City Council members urging them to put Instant Runoff Voting on the ballot in November. Post or email this to your City Council members
Dear Council Member _______:
I am contacting you to ask for your immediate help to win a
significant election reform for Austin voters. We need Instant Runoff
Voting to be placed on the ballot this November for Austin voters to vote
on it.
Instant runoff voting, or IRV, is becoming a popular reform for
cities across the country. Under IRV, a voter ranks the candidates in
order of the voter's preference. A computer program tabulates all of the
first choice votes and determines whether any candidate received a
majority. If not, the program eliminates the last-place candidate and
transfers his or her votes to the next candidate ranked on each voter's
ballot. This process continues until a candidate receives a majority.
IRV eliminates costly runoff elections, but the ranking of
candidates in order of preference accomplishes one of the things that
runoff elections accomplish. Eliminating runoff elections would save the
city $200,000 it costs to run runoff elections. The County has recently
pledged to spend $5 million for a computerized touch screen voting system
so that IRV is now possible in Travis County. I hope that you will put
this very important reform on the ballot and let the voter's decide on this
issue. I believe that this issue will have significant support among
voters, regardless of their political affiliation or fiscal
interest. Minimizing the number of times voters have to go to the polls
will hopefully get more people out to the polls for the elections.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,