The Michigan Daily - Monday, June 19, 2006 - 3 Residents Coalition pressures City Council to put the alternative voting system on November ballot By Emily Angell For the Daily The Arbor Brewing Company may want to pro- mote Olde No. 22 German Alt to house favorite. This past Wednesday, the Ann Arbor Fair Vote Coalition demonstrated instant-runoff voting by allowing individuals to test and rank a variety of beers using the IRV system. Olde No. 22 came out on top. For the Ann Arbor Fair Vote Coalition and its sup- porters, the fund-raiser was the most recent action in support ofIRV, a system asking each voter to rank the candidates in order of preference. IRV is designed to eliminate the possibility of a dark-horse candidate and increase the impact each voter has on the election. If an individual's first-choice candidate receives the lowest amount of votes and is eliminated, the vote is then assigned to the voter's second-choice candidate. This process continues until one candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote. push for instant-runoff voting For years, advocates of the system have discussed parameters of the current system," he said. The opposition also argues that the current machin- IRV's benefits, including a greater variety of contend- The principal concern among IRV enthusiasts is the ery used to tabulate votes would not accommodate an ers and the removal of the "spoiler" effect - when low turnout rate during the August primaries, when IRV ballot. This problem has suspended the imple- one candidate hurts the chances of an ideologically many Ann Arbor residents and University students mentation of IRV in Ferndale, where it was recently similar candidate winning. Supporters also argue are out of town. Another concern is cost - each year, approved by 75 percent of voters. that IRV will promote civility between candidates the city spends upward of $50,000 on primaries. For Kestenbaum, the solution is simple. Because during campaigns and save taxpayers money. By eliminating the August primary, its support- odd-year elections are not as large, the city's present Coalition members hope pressure from the ers argue IRV would save taxpayer money, increase machines would be able to count the first-choice votes. community will push the City Council to endorse voter turnout in November and enable a broader If afterwards there was not a clear winner, the second- the new system and place it on the November bal- spectrum of candidates to run for election. and third-choice votes could be counted by hand. lot. Although the city council does not require any They also predict Ann Arbor will see an Ann Arbor has a history with IRV. In 1975, IRV signatures, the coalition has currently collected increase in the number of candidates involved in was added to the Ann Arbor City Charter after 15,000 in support of IRV. each election in the future. receiving 52 percent of the vote. "In the past, I have been afraid to vote for my top "Adopting (IRV) generally makes sense when Supporters emphasized that IRV helped candidate because he or she is not the most popular multi-candidate elections are common," said Public Democrat Al Wheeler, who became the first choice," said one Ann Arbor resident. "I'm sick of Policy Prof. John Chamberlin. black mayor, defeat incumbent Republican being afraid that my vote will end up supporting the The voting disaster in Florida during the 2000 Mayor James Stephenson that year. candidate I like the least." presidential election is one controversy in a series Although IRV was later eradicated in 1976, it If adopted, IRV would be used in odd-year pri- of many that has heightened concern among citi- demonstrated that the voting system could impact maries to elect City Council members. Plurality zens and increased interest in alternative voting the outcome of elections. voting, the current system, would remain in use methods. In the United States, the IRV method has The coalition ultimately believes that by educat- during even-year elections when gubernatorial and been implemented in more than 21 cities and has ing residents of alternative voting options, Ann Arbor national elections occur. also proven successful in Australia, the Republic may become a successful model of IRV. Larry Kestenbaum, the Washtenaw County of Ireland and in London, England. Supporters hope that in years to come, Ann clerk, said IRV would not completely replace the Those opposed to IRV argue that the complex- Arbor will pave the way for other cities in Michi- traditional structure. ity of the ballot may deter voters with a lower gan and eventually enable IRV to affect elections "I hope to create a ballot that would fit within the education level. at both the state and national level. HCM Continued from Page 2 should know about - if there's a history of sudden death in their family, if they themselves have felt faint or especially tired on the play- ing field," said spokeswoman for the University Health System Kara Gavin in an e-mail. Last month, the University opened a clinic in its Cardiovascular Center that specializes in HCM treatment. "We felt there was a need to really cater to these patients," said Medi- cal School Prof. Sharlene Day, the clinic's director. She said that the intensity of com- petitive athletics usually triggers arrhythmias. About 1 percent of individuals with HCM die of sudden death each year. Day said sudden deaths are asso- ciated most often with playing aggressive sports or bursts of activ- ity, such as basketball, football or weight-lifting. Using imaging techniques and electrocardiograms, the new clinic offers screenings for family mem- bers of HCM patients to determine if they carry the genetic mutation. Nearly all individuals diagnosed with HCM have an abnormal EKG. Booi said she was impacted strongly by the student's death because she is also a 25-year-old graduate student who exercises strenuously. After witnessing the student's death, Booi did not want to take any chances - she had an EKG this past Monday. Although one in 500 people may suffer from HCM, one in 200,000 dies from a sudden death each year. "It's important to emphasize that this is still a very rare event," Day said. "I don't think people should be alarmed." To learn more about cardiovas- cular disease, visit the University Cardiovascular Center's website at www.med.umich.edu/cvc. 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