What a crazy election year and even crazier week. As I write this, Bush is up in Florida by 961 votes and appears to be on his way to the White House. However, at current count, Dubya is losing the nationwide popular election by 222,880 votes.Interestingly, no candidate could manage a majority of the vote. In other words, over half of the voting public chose someone other than our next president with their vote. This is not the first time this has happened.In fact, this is the third election in a row, and seventh in the last 22 that an election has been this close. Woodrow Wilson (41.8 percent) in 1912, Harry Truman (49.6 percent) in 1948, John Kennedy (49.72 percent over Nixon with 49.55 percent) in 1960, Richard Nixon (43.4 percent) in 1968, “Wild Bill” Clinton (43.3 percent) in 1992 and (49.42 percent) in 1996.In all of these elections, there were significant votes garnered by various “third party” candidates. Clearly, more choice is good – after all, what kind of choice is it to choose between Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dumber? But when seven candidates are on the ballot, it seems quite unlikely that a single candidate will clearly rise above the rest and win a majority in an election.The current system is clearly designed to keep those in power, well… in power, while giving the electorate the illusion of choice.Voters like Andrew Hall (opinion piece, Oct. 20) are coerced into voting for a candidate that isn’t their first choice simply because they are afraid of the alternative.In fact, The Lantern`’s endorsement of Gore for president seemed to discard Nader as a viable choice for exactly that reason.This is freedom? This is the way we choose our leaders?Clearly, the current election system stifles choice. However, there is a viable solution that promotes diversity while ensuring no candidate wins without majority support.That solution is called “Instant Runoff Voting.”The Center for Voting and Democracy describes it as: “IRV allows voters to rank candidates as their first choice, second choice, third, fourth and so on. If a candidate does not receive a clear majority of votes on the first count, a series of runoff counts are conducted, using each voter’s top choices indicated on the ballot. The candidate who received the fewest first place ballots is eliminated.”The ballots are then retabulated, with each counting as a vote for the top-ranked candidate listed on the ballot that is still in contention. Voters who chose the now-eliminated candidate have their vote transferred to their second choice candidate – just as if they were voting in a traditional two-round runoff election. This process continues until a candidate achieves more than 50 percent of the vote.”This is a beautiful system.Hall could have voted for Nader as his first choice and then simply voted for Gore with his second. Votes are not thrown away on fringe candidates. Whoever receives the most votes gets into office.This is a win/win situation for all involved.
Brian GuilfoosGraduating seniorElectrical and computer engineering