2009 Burlington mayoral election

The city of Burlington, Vermont approved IRV for use in mayoral elections with a 64% vote in 2005,[1] at a time when IRV was only used in a few local elections in the United States.[10] The 2006 Burlington mayoral election was decided after two rounds of IRV tallying, selecting candidate Bob Kiss of the Vermont Progressive Party (VPP). In the election, Kiss prevailed over opponents Hinda Miller, Democrat, and Kevin Curley, Republican. With his election Kiss became the second member of the VPP to be elected to the office (Peter Clavelle was the first).

• Bob Kiss (P), incumbent mayor (elected in 2006) seeking second term
• Andy Montroll (D), then current member of the Burlington City Council
• Dan Smith (I), lawyer
• James Simpson (G), owner of human-powered transportation services company in Burlington
• Kurt Wright (R), then current City Councilor and State Representative

Unlike Burlington's first IRV mayoral election in 2006, the mayoral race in 2009 was decided in three rounds. Bob Kiss won the election, receiving 28.8% of the vote in the first round, and receiving 48.0% in the final round (which made up 51.5% of the ballots which had not been exhausted), defeating final challenger Kurt Wright (who received more votes than Kiss in the earlier rounds, but only received 45.2% in the final round).

The elimination rounds were as follows:[11][12]

The IRV election is considered a success by IRV advocates such as FairVote, asserting it prevented the election of the first round plurality leader, Wright. It avoided the effect of vote-splitting between the candidates Kiss and Montroll that might have prevented the election of one or other of them, instead of Wright, the initial front runner.[13] was easy for voters to understand,[14] avoided the need for traditional runoffs,[14][15] and "contributed to producing a campaign among four serious candidates that was widely praised for its substantive nature".[13]

Montroll, according to some analysis, is said to have been the rightful winner but at no time did he have more votes as cast than the other two main contenders.[16]

Advocates of other voting reforms considered the election a failure of IRV because a 54% majority of voters preferred another specific candidate, Montroll, over the IRV winner, Kiss:[17][18] The Condorcet "beats-all" winner[19][20][21][22][23] (and likely most-approved/highest-rated candidate) did not win.[17] Critics claimed the system is convoluted,[15] did nothing to increase voter turnout,[15] turned voting into a "gambling game" due to non-monotonicity,[19][24][25] and "eliminated the most popular moderate candidate and elected an extremist".[24]

The IRV outcome was a result of vote-splitting: Andy Montroll defeated both Bob Kiss and Kurt Wright in separate pairwise contests, and was eliminated in the semifinal round of IRV due to vote-splitting with both candidates. Kurt Wright became the spoiler candidate (a loser whose presence in the race changed who the winner is), splitting the vote against Bob Kiss; Wright received more first-choice votes (including promoted votes to first-choice) than Montroll due to Kiss splitting the vote against Wright.[26]

The election did demonstrate that voters are capable of using ranked-choice ballots, with 99.9% of the ballots filled out correctly,[13] though this includes 16% of voters who bullet-voted for only one candidate.[27]

Pairwise preference combinations:

	Andy Montroll (Democratic Party)	4 wins and no losses (4–0)					4 Wins ↓
	Bob Kiss (Vermont Progressive Party)	3 wins, 1 loss (3–1)				1 Loss → ↓ 3 Wins	4064 (Montroll) – 3476 (Kiss)
	Kurt Wright (Republican Party)	2 wins, 2 losses (2–2)			2 Losses → 2 Wins ↓	4313 (Kiss) – 4061 (Wright)	4597 (Montroll) – 3664 (Wright)
	Dan Smith (Independent)	1 win, 3 losses (1–3)		3 Losses → 1 Win ↓	3971 (Wright) – 3793 (Smith)	3944 (Kiss) – 3576 (Smith)	4570 (Montroll) – 2997 (Smith)
	James Simpson (Green Party)	0 wins, 4 losses (0–4)	4 Losses →	5570 (Smith) – 721 (Simpson)	5270 (Wright) – 1310 (Simpson)	5514 (Kiss) – 844 (Simpson)	6262 (Montroll) – 591 (Simpson)

This leads to an overall preference ranking of:

1. Montroll – defeats all candidates below, including Kiss (4,064 to 3,476)
2. Kiss – defeats all candidates below, including Wright (4,313 to 4,061)
3. Wright – defeats all candidates below, including Smith (3,971 to 3,793)
4. Smith – defeats Simpson (5,570 to 721) and the write-in candidates

Montroll was therefore preferred over Kiss by 54% of voters, preferred over Wright by 56% of voters, over Smith by 60%, and over Simpson by 91% of voters.[28][4]

There was post-election controversy regarding the IRV method, and in 2010 a citizen's initiative resulted in the repeal of IRV in Burlington.[29] The initially "stagnant" repeal campaign drew renewed interest as Kiss became embroiled in a series of controversies.[30] In December 2009, a group called "One Person, One Vote", made up of Republicans and Democrats unhappy with the election outcome,[15] held a press conference to announce that they had collected enough signatures for an initiative to repeal IRV.[31] According to a local columnist, the vote was a referendum on Kiss's mayoralty; Kiss had allegedly become a "lame duck" because of a scandal relating to Burlington Telecom and other local issues.[15] However, in an interview with Vermont Public Radio, Kiss disputed that claim,[32] and those gathering signatures for the repeal stated that it was specifically a rejection of IRV itself.[15]

The IRV repeal initiative in March 2010 won 52% to 48%. It earned a majority of the vote in only two of the city's seven wards, but the vote in those 2009 strongholds for Kurt Wright was lopsided against IRV.[6][7][8] Republican Governor Jim Douglas signed the repeal into law in April 2010, saying "Voting ought to be transparent and easy to understand, and affects the will of the voters in a direct way. I'm glad the city has agreed to a more traditional process."[30]

The repeal reverted the system back to a 40% rule that requires a top-two runoff if no candidate exceeds 40% of the vote. Had the 2009 election occurred under these rules, Kiss and Wright would have advanced to the runoff. If the same voters had participated in the runoff as in the first election and not changed their preferences, Kiss would have won the runoff.[33]

The following decade saw continuing controversy about voting methods in Burlington. In 2011, for example, an initiative effort to increase the winning threshold from the 40% plurality to a 50% majority failed by 58.5% to 41.5%,[34] while in 2019, instant-runoff voting was once again proposed for Burlington by Councilor Jack Hanson but went unapproved by the Charter Change Committee for the March 2020 ballot.[35] One year later, in July 2020, the city council voted 6–5 in support of a measure to reinstate IRV, but that was vetoed by Mayor Miro Weinberger the following month.[36] In a city election, Burlington voters voted in favor by IRV by 64% to 36% (8914 to 4918) on March 2, 2021.[37][38][39] The charter change requires approval and enactment by the Vermont legislature, which did not act on it 2021.

• City's website
• Ballot data: 2009 Mayor Reports, see 2009 Burlington Mayor Final Piles Report.txt
• Comparative visualizations of IRV, Condorcet and Borda results.