I can’t help but wonder if Lieberman would support Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) in the wake of his experience this campaign.
In IRV, a voter doesn’t select a single candidate; the voter can select multiple candidates, ranking them in order of preference. After the votes are cast, vote-counters tally up the number of first-place votes for each candidate. If no candidate has a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-place votes is discarded, and the election counters use the #2 choices from the ballots who had that candidate as #1 instead. The process then iterates until a candidate achieves a majority of votes.
In Connecticut, we have essentially a 3-way race for Senator: Lamont (whose supporters would probably pick Lieberman as #2), Schlesinger (whose few supporters would probably pick Lieberman as #2), and Lieberman.
With IRV, Lieberman would likely be coasting to a victory. Rather than going through quite a bit of effort to ensure that he receives more votes than Lamont, he would be faced with the much easier task of just making sure that neither Lamont nor Schlesinger achieved a majority of #1 votes.
Some proponents of IRV argue that the concept allows voters to feel more comfortable casting votes for independent or minor-party candidates, elevating them in stature, while at the same time increasing the odds of having a “consensus candidate” elected.
I can’t help but wonder if finding “consensus candidates” in this manner just fosters stagnation.
I still prefer my “superdistrict, but vote for only one candidate” scheme described under the “Elections & Districts” link on the left side of this page..