1. Appointment by a higher authority (President, Governor, Congress, what-have-you)
2. Specific and often complicated rules delegating who moves where (like the U.S. has with Presidential succession if the VP can't assume office).
3. A separate candidate specifically elected to take over if necessary (Vice-President)
4. Special Election
The problem with possibilities 1 and 2 are that the person put in charge may not reflect the will of the voters. For example, if the U.S. Presidency and the Congress were controlled by different parties, losing the President and V.P. could pick a person with a completely different viewpoint. (For a time, Newt Gingrich could have become President had Bill Clinton and Al Gore been incapacitated).
To a lesser extent, this is true with possibility 3 as well -- many people who voted for George Bush Sr. would never have voted for Dan Quayle. There is also the problem -- at least in the U.S. system -- of a person who has a little authority except breaking ties in the Senate and going to funerals of other world leaders (Dick Cheney is a bit of an exception, though his role is limited to what the President doesn't want to do). He's kind of a spare tire, usually unnecessary except in an emergency.
The problem with possibility 4 is that it would leave the office vacant until the election could be held, and there would be added expense and inconvenience holding a new election. There is also the problem of abbreviated election campaigns and shortened terms of office -- if a politician needs to be replaced after he's spent most of his term in office, a candidate would have to spend a bunch of money just to get elected, only to have to spend a bunch more almost immediately to be re-elected.
Which brings me to my question: In the various election methods being proposed, are there some clear, logical ways of choosing a successor if the first choice cannot finish his term? Plurality, most Condorcet methods, Approval, and IRV would have to use one of the four possibilities above -- simply choosing the next highest vote-getter when a term is halfway over isn't an option, since the person has not had a chance to keep up-to-date with the job, and the person might be a completely different party.
The one clever method I've seen is natural extension of "direct representation"/proxy voting for a legislature. Voters could explicitly state the order of candidates they wanted to receive their proxy, and candidates could direct their proxies to another legislator if he died or was otherwise incapacitated. In essence, each legislator would have a kind of running mate ready to represent his constituents, and the choice of a replacement would most likely be closer to their wishes than a political appointee would be. (This would also give another reason to be nice to your fellow representatives, because one never knows when they might receive a legislative windfall :) ).
Anyway, I'm interested if others have come up with interesting/clever methods of insuring a continuation of the government as close to the voter's wishes as possible with the different voting methods discussed here.
Michael Rouse [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- Election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
