Referendum on Instant Run-off Elections in Urbana URBANA, IL (wqub) - Instant runoff, or ranked choice voting is used to select the president in Ireland , legislators in Australia , and local officials in a handful of U-S cities. Now, supporters of the voting method hope Urbana will become the first Illinois city to elect its officials the instant runoff way. Jim Meadows reports.

Citizens for Instant Runoff Voting filed petitions with the Urbana city clerk on Friday, to put a referendum on the February 5th primary ballot. If Urbana voters approve the measure, they'll be agreeing to a method that allows them to choose their favorite candidate --- and then choose their 2nd favorite candidate, 3rd favorite and so on. If no candidate in a contest gets 50 percent of the vote, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and the 2nd choice votes are added to the totals. The process continues until one candidate gets a clear majority.
Referendum organizer Durl Kruse says instant runoff voting will bring out more voters --- and more candidates.

If approved in Urbana , instant runoff voting would only apply to municipal races for mayor, city council and city clerk.
I'm Jim Meadows.
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