Exit Poll Results Show Voters Favor Using IRV
Three US cities have implemented Instant Runoff Voting in the last five years – San Francisco (CA) in 2004, Burlington (VT) in 2006 and Takoma Park (MD) in 2007. Exit polls were conducted for each of these elections and show that voters overwhelmingly understood how to use Instant Runoff Voting and prefer it over the traditional runoff system. The following table compares the results in each city.
San Francisco (CA) | Burlington (VT) | Takoma Park (MD) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Poll voters | Absentee voters | Poll voters | Poll voters | |
| Prior knowledge about IRV before voting | 69% | 63% | 90% | 80% |
| Understood how to use IRV very or fairly well | 86% | 89% | 88% | |
| Prefer IRV over traditional runoff method | 61% | 77% | 63% | |
The full survey reports can be found at these links:
San Francisco, CA
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/election/Elections_Pages/SFSU-PRI_RCV_final_report_June_30.pdf
Burlington VT
http://www.betterballotcampaign.org/sites/fairvotemn.org/files/burlington_exit_poll_results.pdf
Takoma Park, MD
http://www.fairvote.org/blog/index.php/2007/01/31/first-takoma-park-irv-election-exit-poll/