Runoff Elections

An Instant Run-Off or Ranking ballot accomplishes the same purpose, but in a much less cumbersome way. It eliminates the spoiler effect so no voter needs to worry about "wasting" his vote. Instead of being limited to one choice you may rank the candidates as to their acceptability to you. If there are N candidates you would have N rankings to potentially fill. For unacceptable choices you could leave lower ranking positions blank. If no one in a given count of the ballots attains a majority of first-rank choices, the person with the lowest first-rank count is eliminated from all rankings on all ballots and everyone below him on a given ballot moves up one position. The process of counting and eliminating is repeated until someone has a majority.

Specialists in election software have said that the software changes could be implemented in current voting machines, so there would be no great infrastructure expense involved. The process should certainly include a paper record to preclude tampering with the election integrity.