Another day, another map,

You can look at the maps here. Right now it looks like another special session until Perry and DeLay ram redistricting down voters throats.

In looking at the maps, I was noticing that if you had ten 3 member districts, and one 2 member, it would bring diversity in ethnic groups and party. You take 3 adjoining districts and have that elect the three top vote getters with every voter getting one vote. The Democrats and Republicans would probably each nominate three people but possibly only two where a party was weak and if the smaller parties were smart they would nominate one and even independents could run if they thought they could get 15%+ of the vote which might be enough to win.

In places that do this they say it is almost always the case that the major parties split 2-1. If nine people ran you might have the winners getting 30%, 25%, 20% and you know the losers weren't really that significant. The winners would really represent their core constituency. 75% of the voters would have a person they want representing them. This might be an even better method of getting more diversity and ideas in play than instant runoff voting.

There is nothing to prevent giving voters a second runoff choice vote too if their first choice is not elected. You count the primary choices and rank the candidates. All people who voted for the bottom candidate get their second choice counted. Candidates are ranked again and the bottom one eliminated and his/her instant runoff votes are counted and distributed. Repeat until you have the three winners. This is an unnecessary step but insures that nearly everyone has their first or second choice representing them. I doubt this would go over well as dominant parties just feel too many extremists would get elected this way.

Instant runoff voting just saves money by eliminating a separate runoff and is recommended for all elections. It is a help to third parties by ensuring that a vote is not wasted and helps legitimacy of government by increasing the chance the representative represents over 50% of the voters. It does not ensure a 50%+1 mandate like a seperate runoff among the two top candidates as many systems that have IRV only provide for one runoff vote. I have voted for the Hugo awards which gives as many runoff votes as candidates and it an election I voted in it went down to the last two candidates.