The new University voting system, Instant Runoff Voting, illustrated its success in the newly-formed University Board of Elections' first mock presidential election Sunday night, UBE Chair Brian Cook said.
Under the old system of one vote per person, in which the leading candidate needed a 5 percent margin to win, President George W. Bush would have come out on top. With the IRV system in place, Sen. John Kerry won with a 3.2 percent lead.
"From a completely nonpartisan standpoint, these results were good because they most clearly demonstrated how the Instant Runoff process will occur," Cook said.
The election period began Feb. 10 with polls closing Sunday at 6 p.m. and results were calculated five minutes later, Cook said.
"If this had been run by a standard election, Bush would have won easily, but in this specific case, Instant Runoff Voting eliminated the disadvantage of having factions within a party," he said.
According to Cook, the system requires voters to rank candidates in order of preference. In a traditional voting system each voter has only one vote to cast and all votes are counted equally.
"With IRV the difference is that you can vote for as many people as you want, but only one of those votes counts at a time," Cook said. "By ranking votes, the system is able to take into account personal preferences, which in the end eliminates the need for run-off elections."
UBE member Evan Sweet said he was surprised by the election results.
"Bush was in the lead through the first five rounds and then Edwards' votes all went to Kerry and he ended up winning by a small margin," Sweet said.
Third-year College student Leah Eads, said the mock election tested the efficiency of IRV. Eads said she plans to run for the Judiciary Committee in its upcoming elections.
"I am going to be a part of the election process, and if there are going to be any glitches we need to figure that out now because we have seen how the political process can be messed up," Eads said.
Cook said the success of IRV will allow for future initiatives by the UBE.
"This demonstrates how the UBE could possibly serve as a tool for eliciting student opinion in the future because of the sophisticated nature of the voting system," Cook said. "A possible role for the UBE in the future would be that of running referenda, surveys and polls, year round for student organizations."
The UBE, an 11-member organization, was established last fall after the Student Council elections last spring were marred by allegations of impropriety. The UBE provides a means to control elections through a separate body rather than Student Council itself, Sweet said.
"After last year's spring elections, many students saw a need to create an autonomous, independent, student-run body to oversee elections," Cook said.
The ballot for the mock presidential election included candidates Kerry, Bush, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. John Edwards and retired Gen. Wesley Clark. Bush was the only Republican candidate included in the election.
Editor's Note: Brian Cook, a former member of the Cavalier Daily managing board, had no involvement with the writing of this article.
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