The ENTIRE election in the U.S.A. is totally EVIL and corrupt.

1. UNEQUAL BALLOT ACCESS LAWS.
2. MINORITY RULE GERRYMANDERS
3. PLURALITY NOMINATIONS OF EXTREMISTS
4. PLURALITY ELECTIONS OF THE LEFT/RIGHT EXTREMISTS.

Result — ALL of the leftwing / rightwing accumulated laws and regs.

Remedies -

Uniform definition of Elector in all of the U.S.A.

EQUAL ballot access for all candidates for the same office in the same area.

P.R. for legislative body elections — Total Votes / Total Seats = EQUAL votes needed for each seat winner

Approval Voting for executive/judicial offices.

NOT exactly atomic physics.

Times are ROUGH and TOUGH — like 1860, 1932, 2000, 2004, 2008 The *middle* is very divided.

34 H W S
33 S W H
16 W H S
16 W S H

99

Place Votes Table

1 2 3

H 34 16 49 99
S 33 16 50 99
W 32 67 0 99

99 99 99

With IRV, W loses. H beats S 50-49.

Head to head (Condorcet method) –
W beats H 65-34
W beats S 66-33

W WINS.

IF the first 2 place votes are *YES* votes (as in Approval Voting), then –

H 50
S 49
W 99

W WINS

IF the Bucklin Method is used (add place votes to get a majority), then adding the place 1 and place 2 votes –

H 50
S 49
W 99

W WINS

H Hitler, S Stalin, W George Washington (U.S.A. General in the 1775-1783 American Revolution and the first U.S.A. President in 1789-1797)

IRV is super-dangerous since it ignores most of the data in a place votes table — regardless of the New Age mindless math MORONS hyping IRV in various places — especially for single offices.

IRV WILL nominate / elect HITLER / STALIN type extremists — who will claim a mighty IRV majority *mandate* for their EVIL stuff — while defeating compromise candidates — especially for offices like President, Governor, Mayor, etc.

Condorcet voting is better than what we have, but a tough political sell. Still, I applaud Emerson’s pluck and certainly will be interested to see what kind of reception he gets. As Bob points out, most active ranked voting activists in Arizona are focused on local drives for IRV and proportional voting.

On Daniel Ong’s post, note that a Colorado task force last year closely examined many single-winner voting methods, including range and approval, along with proportional voting systems. It heard from me and leading advocates of range and approval. It decided to recommend moving forward with pilots for instant runoff voting and proportional voting. This echoes the results of study processes by the League of Women Voters in several states, which have recommended IRV and not recommended approval or other systems.

I hope backers of other systems in general can focus on getting them used in more private elections as a start. IRV is now used by more than half of the nation’s top 30 universities (as rated by US News), for example. No university or college student elections uses approval, range or Condorcet (and in perhaps the most high profile use of approval in competitive elections, Dartmouth’s board of trustees seem to be moving to eliminating it after controversial results). Thus, the debate about their merits is on theoretical grounds, with these systems’ backers passionately arguing theory in a way that often is harshly negative about alternatives, but not grounded in real experience.

And of course don’t forget proportional voting is much more the international norm in well-established democracies and the clearest roadmap to fair representation of political diversity. A lot of the debate over best single-winner systems misses this fundamental reality.

It sounds like IRV might be an acceptable method to you, although not your first choice. If that’s true, you might think about putting some of your obvious talent, knowledge and energy into a very winnable campaign for IRV in local elections that’s going on right in your backyard:

http://fairvoteaz.org/category/better-ballot-glendale

You could learn a lot about ballot measure campaigns and electoral reform that would be very helpful to you in building support over the longer term for Condorcet, if you continue to believe that’s the right way to go.

Despite this, everyone should keep in mind that both theoretically and in actuality, no voting system is perfect, nor does any voting system fit all possible demands or stresses that we place upon it.

These, of course, are not justifications for using or not using any voting system. The reason I chose Condorcet over IRV is not due to a preference for centrism, although that might be the result of some elections. Rather, I chose Condorcet based on the general principle that a voter’s full set of preferences should be accounted for, rather than simply looking at a first choice. This reflects more of a reality about choices in my view.

With regard to the complexity of the method, this is of course a concern, especially when it comes to legitimacy of elections. But in a sense, this is no different from the “black box” issues associated with the use of proprietary software programs for elections.

Lastly, I acknowledge that this campaign will be difficult to pursue because it is state-wide, rather than local. But I think it can be successful regardless with enough exposure and volunteers.

not flagged. [ Flag Message - Mark as Unread ]
Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:14:38 -0700
From: “Emerson French” Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
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To: donlake@sbcglobal.net
Subject: initiatives

Hi Mr. Lake–

I just listened to your message, and I look forward to talking to you
about my initiative. I’m curious as to whom you represent specifically
just for my own information. I apologize for not leaving a voicemail
message, but at the moment I am somewhat consumed by schoolwork. Here
is some background information on me that you might find useful. You
probably read that I go to McClintock High School and that am
attending Oberlin College in the fall. My school interests are quite
varied; I love humanities and sciences. For the past two years, I have
been on the speech and debate team. Prior to that, I was an editor for
the school newspaper. As far as the origins of my campaign go, I’ve
been interested in politics for a long time, and due to the apathy of
my fellow students, and people in the US generally compared to other
democracies when it comes to politics and voting, I feel the strong
need for activism. If you haven’t yet seen my campaign’s website, it’s
at http://www.azvotereform.com. It needs to be updated since I re-filed the
paperwork, but otherwise the majority of the information is still very
accurate. I would love to talk with you further. I get home from
school around 3:45. Sorry for not going into greater depth about the
initiatives in this message, but I have a lot to do and focus on at
the moment. You may call me at the same number where you left the
phone message and I would be more than happy to speak with you
further. Otherwise, you can of course email me at this address.

Thanks,

Emerson French