Instant-runoff voting (or IRV) is a voting system used for single winner
elections in which voters can rank candidates in order of their
preference. In an IRV election, if no one candidate receives a majority of
first choice votes, the candidate with the fewest number of votes is
eliminated, and ballots cast for that candidate are then redistributed to
the remaining candidates according to the ranked preference that the voter
has indicated. When the votes are tallied, should no candidate reach the
required 51 percent of votes that would ensure an actual mathematical
majority then the candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated
and those votes are reapplied to the remaining candidates based on the
number 2 choice as indicated by the voter.

With IRV no longer is the voter asked to select one the "lesser of two
evils" or in the case of the major party, often times low-turnout,
primaries we would be left with a candidate that best represents the
choice of the people.

Instant-runoff voting would invigorate the election process, as it would
afford the voter the chance to vote by picking the candidate they honestly
feel would be the best person for the job and not get caught up in
worrying about a wasted vote or who they think is actual going to be the
winner. This would be a great way to get people back into the political
process.

Instant runoff voting is much fairer than the current "vote for one"
system. It would surely shake-up Rhode Islands political landscape.