Is IRV too complicated for election administrators to handle?
No. Administering an IRV election can save a significant amount of time and money on the part of election administrators compared to running two separate elections in a traditional two-round runoff system. Even in jurisdictions which have switched to IRV, replacing single-round plurality elections (Takoma Park, for example), have found the change to be quite manageable. Whenever new systems are used, there is a transition learning curve, however, every jurisdiction in the U.S. that has switched to IRV has made the transition without significant problems. San Francisco, has faced challenges in some recent elections as a result of problems with their voting machines unrelated to the use of IRV (optical scanners not detecting certain ink colors). While the voter’s task is extremely simple, the election administrator’s task is somewhat more involved. The tally procedure takes some explaining but is fundamentally simple in concept, following the logic of a series of runoffs.
