Victory in Springfield for instant runoff voting (91% of the vote)

Good news from Springfield: we won!

The referendum to implement instant runoff voting for
overseas absentee voters in municipal elections passed
overwhelmingly today. Out of about 25,000 votes cast
on a beautiful Election Day, almost 23,000 people
voted YES on our referendum.

This is the first implementation of a ranked ballot in
Illinois and a huge victory.

Thanks to all the donors who sent in a small check to
FairVote for this campaign and thanks to FairVote,
particularly Ryan Griffin, who designed a great
website at www.IncludeEveryVoter.org.

I've been very impressed with the dedication of
Springfield elected officials, particularly Mayor Tim
Davlin (who was re-elected today) and Sangamon County
Clerk Joe Aiello who embraced this proposal
wholeheartedly.

Today's a good day for democracy.

Next steps in Illinois are the following (a) try to
pass SB 439, introduced by Senator Michael Frerichs,
that would allow any city to implement instant runoff
voting for overseas absentee voters by ordinance
instead of by referendum as Springfield just did and
(b) pitching other municipalities to follow
Springfield's lead.

It's really hard to get 90% of the vote for anything.
So we should feel good about the enormous political
viability of a ranked ballot for overseas absentee
voters.

Onward!