Yes, IRV is a “one-person, one-vote” system. Under single-choice plurality, if a voter does not vote for a frontrunner candidate their vote can feel wasted because it has no impact on a race’s outcome. In IRV, however, voters retain one vote for as long as they have a preference for a viable candidate. 

The one-person, one-vote rule of IRV can be illustrated by comparing it to a runoff election. If a voter selects candidate A in the general election but candidate A does not advance to the runoff, that voter can return to vote for candidate B instead. That voter does not have an extra advantage for choosing their newly preferred candidate in the runoff election. 

A voter in an IRV election may do the same if their first choice candidate does not advance, they decide to cast their vote for whichever preferred candidate advances to the next round.

Yes, RCV is a “one-person, one-vote” system. Under single-choice plurality, if a voter does not vote for a frontrunner candidate their vote can feel wasted because it has no impact on a race’s outcome. In RCV, however, voters retain one vote for as long as they have a preference for a viable candidate. 

The one-person, one-vote rule of RCV can be illustrated by comparing it to a runoff election. If a voter selects candidate A in the general election but candidate A does not advance the runoff, that voter can return to vote for candidate B instead. That voter does not have an extra advantage for choosing their newly preferred candidate in the runoff election. 

A voter in an RCV election may do the same if their first choice candidate does not advance, they decide to cast their vote for whichever preferred candidate advances to the next round.