This year's election provided further evidence that the ranked-choice experiment was not living up to its promise. It did not show any discernable effect in encouraging positive and substantive campaigns, offsetting the influence of big money or otherwise enhancing democracy. About 70,000 fewer San Franciscans voted in this instant-runoff election than in the December 2003 traditional runoff between Newsom and Matt Gonzalez. He's right. Two other issues should be of great concern to San Franciscans who care about democracy. One is the level of voter confusion surrounding the instant-runoff system. The other is the way it short-circuits the opportunity for voters to take a closer, in-depth look at the candidates. There may have been scores of debates in the recently concluded race for mayor, but none offered the 11 or so invited candidates more than a few minutes each to talk about issues facing the city. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/13/EDE11LTTJ3.DTL#ixzz1dpMccW5F
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