Is IRV a fair and easy system for voters protected under the Voting Rights Act?
Yes. According to the San Francisco State studies, 87% of all voters said that they understood IRV. African Americans, Latinos, and Asians were the most likely groups to rank three candidates (the maximum possible). Latinos were most likely to say that ranking was easy or very easy (58%), and Latino voters had the smallest percentage of voters indicating some lack of understanding of the system, only 10%, and only 16% of African-Americans. Spanish first-language speakers had the smallest percentage of voters indicating some lack of understanding, only 9% versus 12% for English speakers. Voters whose first language was Spanish were considerably more likely than others to say that ranking candidates was easy or very easy, with almost two-thirds giving that response. Another exit poll by the Asian Law Caucus found that Asians overwhelmingly favored IRV.
