Instant Runoff Voting

Instant Runoff Voting is frequently called "Ranked Choice Voting" today, which directly highlights the problem with using that generic as an umbrella term for this single-winner majoritarian (winner-take-all) system, as well as the multi-winner proportional system known as Single Transferable Vote. Despite the shared property of using ranked ballots, IRV and STV differ greatly in the foundational matter of threshold for representation. That's why the electoral systems guide rates winner-take-all systems based on whether they are a necessarily winner-take-all use (single offices like mayor or governor), or winner-take-all by choice (legislative elections). One important consequence of that distinction is that it allows IRV the credit it deserves, earning the only GREEN rating among the single-winner systems, for necessarily winner-take-all elections. Here, in contrast, you'll get more information describing why IRV should not be used for legislative elections, and another about its use in party primaries. IRV is known internationally as the Alternative Vote, and has sometimes been termed preferential voting in the US; it only came to be known as IRV in the US in the mid-1990s.

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