If the Presidential Election used Instant Runoff Voting in past elections?

[defe07]

What would happen if each state used Instant Runoff Voting in past elections? You know, a candidate has to win an absolute majority to get the Electoral Votes in a state. Anybody care to what-if here?

[defe07]

I wonder how 1912 would be played out. Anybody?

[defe07]

Here's what I get for '92 if we allow Bush to win states with a difference of 4 points or less

Why do you do that?

Simplicity, mostly.  I agree that most of Perot's votes were anti-Bush votes, but I think a certain number of them were basically conservative votes that were not inclined to go for Clinton.  So, I just allowed states that fell within the MoE to break for Bush, and gave the states outside the MoE to Clinton.  Of course, it's entirely possible, given the results in '96, that Ohio (particularly since Glenn won his Senate seat that year), Louisianna, Kentucky and Tennessee would have gone for Clinton anyway in '92, though I don't think Georgia or Montana would have.  In this case the map would look like this:

Clinton 342
Bush 196

But you forget that in Maine and Utah, Perot came in 2nd. Since IRV works by eliminating the candidates with the least number of votes in each round if no candidate gets an absolute majority, you don't think Maine and/or Utah could swing to Perot in the final round? Plus, New Jersey could've been a close win for Bush because he barely lost it by a point or so.