Voter Turnout and IRV:

According to IRV proponents the problem of low voter turnout can be solved by IRV. In fact, they often claim, "Ranked Choice Voting will increase turnout, and be more inclusive than runoffs...more people will participate."

Is this claim verified by any factual data?  According to what happened in San Francisco, the answer is NO!

Here are the numbers from San Francisco's last big runoff, in 2003:

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 562). . . . . 562 (100%)

REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL . . . . . 466,127

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL. . . . . . . 253,872

VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL . . . . . . . . 54.46

http://www.sfgov.org/site/election_index.asp?id=19802

Next look at the turnout in San Francisco in 2007 under the Ranked Choice Voting/IRV system that promised increased voter turnout:

PRECINCTS COUNTED (OF 580). . . . . 580 (100%)

REGISTERED VOTERS - TOTAL . . . . . 419,598

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL. . . . . . . . . 149,424

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL CARD 1 . . . . 149,424

BALLOTS CAST - TOTAL CARD 2 . . . . 150,098

VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL . . . . . . . . 35.61

VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL CARD 1 . . . . 35.61

VOTER TURNOUT - TOTAL CARD 2 . . . . 35.77

http://www.sfgov.org/site/elections_index.asp?id=68841

That's a tiny 35% of voters turning out - 100,000 fewer in 2007 than in the mayoral runoff in 2003!

2003 Mayoral election results:

GAVIN NEWSOM. . . . . . . . . . 133,546 - 52.81

MATT GONZALEZ . . . . . . . . . 119,329 - 47.19

Let’s look at the results for the Mayoral Contest in 2007, with Newsome versus "progressive" Mecke:

GAVIN NEWSOM . . . . . . . . . 105,596 - 73.66

QUINTIN MECKE . . . . . . . . . . 9,076 - 6.33

<http://www.sfgov.org/site/election_index.asp?id=19802>

Drop in Voter Registration in 2007:

"Big drop in S.F. voters may lead to record-low election turnout. The number of registered voters in the city has fallen by more than 9 percent since the 2003 election. .Four years ago, just before the mayoral election that pitted then-Supervisor Gavin Newsom against then-Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, there were 461,255 registered voters in San Francisco. By Oct. 22, the final registration day for Tuesday's election, that number had fallen to 418,726." - John Wildermuth, San Francisco Chronicle.