Question

Which of the following best summarizes the passage?

Answer 1

The 2000 U.S. presidential race was too close to call, and confusion reigned for several weeks. Instant run-off voting (IRV) could prevent this kind of problem. By allowing people to vote for their first, second and third choices, it ensures that the winner gets a clear majority. Other countries use IRV, and the United States should, too.

Instant run-off voting is a method that ensures that the winner of an election gets more than 50 percent of the votes. It is not used in very many places. The United States doesn't use it for presidential elections. That is why the close vote in Florida in 2000 took so long to resolve. Some small U.S. cities use IRV, so why can't the country?

Instant run-off voting is a way to keep elections from dragging on and on. In order to reach quick results, the United States should think about using this voting method. Problems caused by close elections would not occur with IRV. That is what happened in the 2000 presidential race.

Answer 2

Americans went to the polls on November 7,
2000, expecting to have a new president the
next day, but an odd thing happened. The vote in
Florida was too close to call. It took weeks to
decide who really got the most votes and should
become president.
This kind of problem doesn't occur in places
that use instant run-off voting (IRV). This method
has been used in Australia since the 1920s. The
Irish elect their president using IRV. Parts of
England, such as the City of London, use it.
Some smaller cities in the United States also
use it for local elections. IRV is a way to make
sure a candidate is elected by a majority of the
voters. With it, there would not have been a
problem in Florida.
Here's how it works. A majority is more than
half of the voters. If a country is serious about the
rule of the people, it will want the winner of an
election to get the support of at least 50 percent
of the voters. But in a contest with more than two
contenders, that may not happen. There'd have
to be a run-off election. The candidate with the
least number of votes is dropped from the slate.
Then everyone votes again. The run-offs
continue until one person receives more than
half of the votes.
Instant run-off voting allows this process to
happen all at once. Instead of holding a second
vote (or a third, fourth or fifth), voters are asked
to indicate the candidates they want to win in the
order of their preference. So, if there were three
candidates, you'd write #1 next to your first
choice, #2 next to your second choice and #3
next to your third choice. Then, if no one
candidate received more than 50 percent of the
#1 votes, whoever received the least #1 votes
would be dropped from the race. Those votes
cast for him or her would then go to the voters'
#2 choice.
Had instant run-off voting been used in the
2000 election, the president would have been
declared within a few days of the vote instead of
several weeks and many lawsuits later.