How can IRV be used in partisan elections?
A 2000 Supreme Court case provided that parties have the sole right to choose their nominees for general elections. Because IRV minimizes vote splitting, it makes sense for parties to simply nominate all candidates who satisfy the requirements for placement on a primary ballot. However, if a party chooses otherwise, ranked ballot methods give parties substantially more flexibility to determine their nominees. In a single ranked ballot election, parties can specify a way to choose their nominees based on the set of all rankings (either open or closed to those outside the party; by IRV, plurality, or even exotic methods like Condorcet or Borda). Once nominees are determined, a winner can be determined by IRV among those nominees using the same set of rankings.
