Clark pwns Munger

GREENSBORO, NC -- The News & Record's Doug Clark counters Duke professor (and former gubernatorial candidate for whom I voted) Mike Munger's counter to Clark's original editorial on the state's new instant runoff voting. It is Clark's best explanation yet of the scheme's flaws. Clark:

On top of its other faults, IRV is arbitrary. Why not just count first- and second-choice votes? If that had been done, Thigpen's initial lead over McCullough probably would have held up. Why add third-choice votes? That's sliding further from the voters' real preference. Or if the idea is just to count more votes, how about giving voters fourth and fifth choices? Or let them rank all candidates in order of preference? That would be worse, in my view, but it's no less logical than the IRV format applied in this race.