2009 Burlington, Vermont mayoral election

Since Bernie Sanders' election as mayor in 1981, his allies and the Vermont Progressive Party had continuously held the mayoralty except for two years. The number of registered voters in Burlington rose from 24,991 in 2006, to 33,200 in 2009. The city of Burlington, Vermont, approved IRV for use in mayoral elections with a 64% vote in 2005, at a time when IRV was used only in a few local elections in the United States. The 2006 Burlington, Vermont mayoral election was decided by two rounds of IRV tallying, selecting candidate Bob Kiss of the Vermont Progressive Party (VPP). In the election, Kiss prevailed over Democrat Hinda Miller and Republican Kevin Curley. With his election Kiss became the second member of the VPP to be elected to the office after Peter Clavelle. ==Nominations==

Progressive Kiss officially launched his campaign on January 7, 2009. Democratic On December 3, 2008, the Democrats unanimously selected to give their nomination to Montroll, who was nominated by Representative Johannah Leddy Donovan. Montroll's website was hacked two times during the campaign to feature materials about Turkey and the statements "Oooo Yeah" and "DumansaL Was Here" before being signed by "White Devil". Republican Kurt Wright, president of the city council, announced his campaign on December 11, 2008. Other Dan Smith, the son of Peter Plympton Smith, announced that he would run as an independent on December 2, 2008. His cousin Emily served as his campaign manager. ==Campaign==

During the campaign raised $50,986 and spent $51,193, Wright raised $39,365 and spent $34,585, Montroll raised $24,202 and spent $23,021, and Kiss raised $20,265 and spent $19,946. In the last ten days of the campaign Wright raised and spent more than his opponents. Kiss received $5,000 from family members, Montroll received $4,875, Smith received $3,800, and Wright received nothing. 5 of the 7 city councilors up for reelection declined to run, including Montroll and Wright who ran for mayor instead. The Republicans lost a seat while the Democrats gained one resulting in a composition of 7 Democrats, 3 Progressives, 2 Republicans, and 2 independents. ==Results==

A recount was requested by Wright, but he withdrew his demand on March 10, after 43% of the votes were recounted. The elimination rounds were as follows: == Analysis ==

FairVote touted the 2009 election as one of its major success stories, with IRV helping the city avoid the cost of a traditional runoff election (which likely would not have changed who won). They also argued IRV prevented a spoiler effect that would have occurred under plurality. Later analyses stated the race was spoiled, however, with Wright acting as a spoiler pulling moderate votes from Montroll, who would have defeated Kiss in a one-on-one race. (However, when Montroll's votes were transferred, they went largely to Kiss, not to Wright.) FairVote also claimed the election as a success story because 99.9% of voters filled out at least one preference on their ranked-choice ballot. Some mathematicians and voting theorists criticized the election results as revealing several pathologies associated with instant-runoff voting, noting that Kiss was elected as a result of 750 votes cast against him (ranking Kiss in last place). Several electoral reform advocates branded the election a failure after Kiss was elected despite 54% of voters voting for Montroll over Kiss, violating the principle of majority rule. === Tournament matrix === The results of every possible one-on-one election can be completed as follows: This leads to an overall preference ranking of: • Montroll – defeats all candidates below, including Kiss (4,064 to 3,476) • Kiss – defeats all candidates below, including Wright (4,313 to 4,061) • Wright – defeats all candidates below, including Smith (3,971 to 3,793) • 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. Hypothetical results under various voting systems Because all ballots were fully released, it is possible to reconstruct the winners under other voting methods. While Wright would have won under plurality, Kiss won under IRV, and if they voted again the same way that they marked their preferential ballot, he would have won under a two-round vote or a traditional nonpartisan blanket primary. Montroll, being the Condorcet winner, would have won if the ballots were counted using ranked pairs (or any other Condorcet method). Analyses suggested Montroll also would have won under most rated voting methods, including score voting, approval voting, majority judgment, or STAR voting. == Effect on IRV in Burlington ==

There was post-election controversy regarding the IRV method, and in March 2010 a citizen's initiative resulted in the repeal of IRV in Burlington. The initially "stagnant" repeal campaign drew renewed interest as Kiss became embroiled in a series of controversies. In December 2009, a group called "One Person, One Vote", made up of Republicans and Democrats unhappy with the election outcome, held a press conference to announce that they had collected enough signatures for an initiative to repeal IRV. 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. and those gathering signatures for the repeal stated that it was specifically a rejection of IRV itself. and "eliminated the most popular moderate candidate and elected an extremist". 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." 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%, 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. One year later, in July 2020, the city council voted 6–5 in support of a measure to reinstate IRV, but it was vetoed by Mayor Miro Weinberger the following month. The council then amended the measure to apply only to the council itself, which the Mayor accepted, and on March 2, 2021, Burlington voters voted in favor of IRV for its city council by 64% to 36% (8,914 to 4,918). The charter change required approval by the Vermont legislature, which enacted it in May of 2022, and which the governor allowed to become law without his signature. The council in September 2022, the voters in March 2023, and the legislature in May 2023 approved the expansion of use of IRV for mayor, school commissioners, and ward election officers, with first use in March 2024. ==Endorsements==

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