Is IRV fair to racial minorities?
Yes. IRV is used effectively by racial minorities, but it neither hinders nor promotes the election of racial minorities. To generally advance the cause of representation for racial minorities, forms of proportional representation are needed, rather than a winner-take-all method such as IRV and nearly all other elections in the U.S. However, by focusing the decision on a single election, rather than a two-election runoff process, IRV does tend to enhance the turnout and success of racial minorities. In a multi-candidate IRV election, candidates have an interest in appealing to the supporters of other candidates for second preferences, and there is some risk that appeals to racism may backfire by alienating potential second preferences. However, in a head-to-head separate runoffs, demonization of opponents and appeals to racism are often an effective strategy. Exit polls by San Francisco State University and an analysis by the New America Foundation of the San Francisco IRV elections fo
