At 11:02 PM 4/25/2006, Dan Bishop wrote: >A good idea, but how would you prevent it from once again degenerating >into the "vote for electors who will vote for (candidate)" system?
If that is what the people want, that is what they will get. However, we don't allow candidates to put campaign promises on the ballot, why allow electors to state on the ballot whom they will vote for? We do allow party affiliations to be on the ballot: indeed, that is, in my view, a bad idea. It encourages "I don't care who this bozo is, he's my bozo -- says so right here on the ballot -- so I'll vote for him." But, of course, parties are generally for it. Giving independents a serious disadvantage, which is how they like it. If Asset Voting were used to pick electors, it would become practical for people to write in anyone they choose; as long as that person was willing to serve, at least in the vote redistribution, the vote would not be wasted as it certainly will be at present. You can write in a Presidential vote, right now, but who becomes the elector? Even if an elector has been named, officially, do we know who that elector would vote for if freed in a second round? Clearly, in a functioning electoral college, the identity and character of the electors would be important. It has been made irrelevant by the present system, which has reduced the electoral college, almost totally --except for circumstances which have not happened for, what, more than 100 years? -- to a weird vote-counting method. I'm not against parties, not at all, but I am against continuing a system which *requires* party affiliation, under nearly all circumstances, to have any chance of election. This creates representatives who are beholden to parties rather than to the people as a whole, thus amplifying polarization. There is, of course, a way around all this, and it is now up and running, an application of FA/DP concepts to politics: http://metaparty.beyondpolitics.org If even a relatively small people participate, I predict, it will work. Surprisingly small. ---- election-methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
