We are too impatient already.
For those who didn’t read the article, this is not about automation, it’s mostly about policy change- i.e., allowing mailed votes to be tallied early. RCV is really only possible at scale with computers doing the count.
I’m not an alaskan, but not letting 25% of the results leak early seems reasonable to me.
We have used RCV in Australia for about a century counting paper ballots by hand and there has been one election within my lifetime where the result wasn’t known on election night. There are always a few seats that go right down to the wire and take longer to get the final result, but I see that as a feature, not a bug. We do also use computers in the count, but the initial count and preference distribution is done by hand.
We are too impatient already.
I don’t understand why people are so obsessed with getting a final, definitive result on election night. You have a ridiculous 2 month gap between the election and the new congress and president being seated, and the outgoing congress and president still get to legislate and exercise executive power in that time. It’s ludicrous to me that the losing party gets two months to sabotage the incoming government.
