The End of the "Wasted Vote"

The Tea Party movement brings more than energy to the political process. It brings a willingness to "think outside the box." The Washington County Tea Party decided to poll their members on the House and Senate race online. Not only online voting, but INSTANT RUNOFF online voting. This is an idea that is a system changer. Voters rank the candidates. This allows them to vote their conscience because if their first choice winds up at the bottom of the pile then their vote is assigned to their second choice. The process is continued until someone gets a majority of the vote.

Many candidates did not fill out their survey, and were thus ineligible, and they had a "favorite son" candidate which impacted the results, but their attempts to improve our process is what excites me. The old "first past the post" method of determining election winners has not served us well.