Instant runoff elections, are these really the better way to choose

[whistle]

...candidates, that is if there are five candidates on the ballot for a given position, say governor of your state, the voter will state their order of preference of the candidates by rating 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, etc. all the way through to write-in candidates as well. The top two choices would then be evaluated as to the number of 1st choice votes each gets. I think that's how I've heard the process explained.

Exactly how would this work and would voters understand the process better or just be more confused?

[yourout]

1. It could work and it would truly give us a Democracy but.......

neither party will allow it to happen. They both have to much to lose.

[whistle]

3. So, an example might look something like this....

<snip>
Instant-runoff voting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Instant-runoff voting (IRV) (also known as the Alternative Vote (AV) and by several other names) is an electoral system used for single winner elections in which voters rank candidates in order of preference. In an IRV election, if no candidate receives an overall majority of first preferences the candidates with fewest votes are eliminated one by one, and their votes transferred according to their second and third preferences (and so on), until one candidate achieves a majority. The term 'instant-runoff voting' is used because this process resembles a series of run-off elections. At a national level IRV is used to elect the Australian House of Representatives<1>, the President of Ireland, the Fijian House of Representatives and, beginning in 2007, the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea. <More>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting

I still think this creates more confusion, especially when 3rd place and below candidates are eliminated. But, I may be making a mountain out of a mole-hill

[lcordero2]

2. It can work

but a lot of voters might think that it's too much work.

On edit: this is why election day needs to become a work holiday.