2016 Presidential Election (Instant Runoff Voting Implementation)

The 2016 Presidential Election was held on November 3rd, 2016. The election was the first since Instant Runoff Voting in the United States. There was great difficulty in attempting to find a way to make IRV work with the electoral college, but it was eventually worked out.

Other American2006 works: 2022 Midterms (To Form A More Perfect Union)

## Results

### First Ballot.

The first ballot seemed to favor the Democrats in the running, namely Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, who were able to get double-digit percentages by not needing to worry about the votes of other Democratic candidates. Ted Cruz, who was previously deemed the leading Republican Candidate, also did very well early on. One candidate on the ballot, Jeb Bush, failed to win any states and was subsequently eliminated from the ballot.

### Second Round

The second round of the ballot saw very few changes, with only the state of Florida leaving former Secretary of State Clinton's column in favor of Senator Marco Rubio, due to the elimination of Jeb Bush. On this ballot the nominee of the far-left Green Party, Jill Stein, was eliminated.

### Third Ballot

Again, the Third Ballot saw very few changes. With Jill Stein eliminated, Massachusetts narrowly went to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Another third party candidate, Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, was eliminated. This resulted in all remaining candidates being either Republicans, Democrats, or in the case of Evan McMullin, Independent.

### Fourth Ballot

With the elimination of Gary Johnson and still the lack of solidarity among either of the major parties, both states won by Gary Johnson (now eliminated) went to Evan McMullin, who now carried 6 intermountain western states. This allowed McMullin to save himself from elimination, forcing Governor John Kasich into elimination.

## Fifth Ballot

The election now came to finally eliminate Evan McMullin, the "moderate" in the race. With McMullin out, Ted Cruz was able to pick up several state, namely Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Arizona, while Hillary Clinton gained Colorado and New Mexico. However, the elimination of McMullin caused enough votes to go to Ted Cruz in North Carolina to flip the state and enough Trump votes in Iowa to flip the state. Virginia's vote count also became very close. Florida Senator Marco Rubio was eliminated after this ballot.

## Sixth Ballot

With many votes for Florida Senator Marco Rubio gone, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump began to see boosts even as the vote counts for Clinton and Sanders remained almost untouched. Cruz picked up South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and in the "Trump Surprise", Trump managed to flip several rust belt states, namely Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire. Cruz also managed to flip Virginia from Clinton. This round eliminated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

## Seventh Ballot

With the elimination of Vermont Senator Sanders, the Democrats where now united behind Hillary Clinton, causing even states thought to be deep in GOP hands to flip to the Democrats. The brutal round for the GOP saw Clinton skyrocket to 453 electoral votes, a number not seen since Ronald Reagan's days. Cruz and Trump both lost over half of there electoral votes, and the Republican stronghold of Texas even went blue. Trump was eliminated from the round, which caused many to believe that Cruz would do much better on the Eighth and final ballot.

## Eighth Ballot

In an incredible but expected comeback, Ted Cruz soared past 300 electoral votes now that the GOP vote wasn't split. Cruz carried the majority of the elections swing states.