a wonderfully
democratic (yes small "d") innovation that puts power in the hands of voters
and makes the
focus of elections the issues that matter most to the voters and not the
"horseraces" (AKA
"beauty contests", "personality polls", "endorsement chases", etc.) - which
have become the
norm in elections using the classic "Plurality Is Sufficient to Declair A
Victory" system!]
The popularity of Ranked Choice Voting (or "Single Transferrable Voting" as the
Australians
call it - who have been using it for years to decide their elections) is
multi-partisan -
voters across the board who try it very quickly get accustomed to being
expected to think
about which candidates they feel best able to support and work for the issues
that matter
the most - and which they feel are least able to work for them - and then score
them in
order from first to last.
Critics claim the system is "too complicated" for voters to understand: an
insult to the
intelligence of Americans who routinely cite batting averages, NFL standings
and record
windchill readings! Olders voters hesitate sometimes - not because they don't
get the idea
of ranking candidates - but because (in the currently enshrined system) they
are told over
and over that they only get to put down an "X" (as tho they were treated as
illiterates who
don't know how to write anything more complicated!)
Most younger voters who have not been subject to the "dumbing down"
conditioning of our
currently reigning system get it immediately and relish the freedom to exercise
their
intelligence in the voting booth. The freedom to vote your heart on the first
round -
knowing that you will still be able to keep your least favorite candidates at
the bottom of
the list - is very empowering for voters - of all ages.
The biggest opponents of giving voters the option to rank their votes are
political insiders
- who recognize that their status in their respective party is less important
and their
endorsement less sought after. Our "two party" system is really an artifact of
the
plurality win voting/tallying process; when the ballot shifts to ranking
candidates based on
their ideas and policy proposals and not on their personalities - new people
with new ideas
and new supporters offer a much better set of choices for everybody than two
competing
political "machines" which control access to primaries and campaign financing.
The other category of opponents are the "aginners" - individuals and groups
who can only
envision elections as political gladitorial battles in which it's always "the
good guys" vs
"the bad guys" - and they are very focused on clarifying who their opponents
are (which
cowboy is wearing the white hat and which is wearing the black hat - to use a
blatantly
loaded metaphor dating from the silent screen era); and then trashing their
"enemies" at
every opportunity! These people are the poster children of "Dark Money" and
"dark
messaging" campaigning.
There will always be such angry, disgruntled folks drawn to every decision
making venue -
who are there to pick a fight more than anything else. Our job is not to let
them control
or influence the agenda or set the frames of discussion. Elections must be
about
establishing the best policies - not about winning the playoffs!
-in Love and Peace,
-Demi Miller
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself,
and you are the easiest person to fool."
-Richard Feynman
"Whenever people say, 'We mustn't be sentimental,'
- you can take it they are about to do something cruel.
And if they add, 'We must be realistic,'
- they mean they are going to make money out of it."
--Brigid Brophy
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
--Anais Nin
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
-- Frederick Douglass
"The life of the individual only has meaning in so far as it aids in
making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful."
-- Albert Einstein
"We know how to transform this world to reduce our impact on nature by several
fold,
how to provide meaningful, dignified living-wage jobs for all who seek them,
and how to feed, clothe, and house every person on earth.
What we don't know is how to remove those in power, those whose ignorance of
biology
is matched only by their indifference to human suffering. This is a political
issue. It is not an ecological problem."
--Paul Hawken, from a speech at the Bioneers conference in Oct. 2002
On 10/09/2017 01:54 PM, Haudy Kazemi wrote:
> And the two party caucus/primary/main election system is not being or cannot
be gamed? (And I'm not even referring to gerrymandering).
>
> RCV is meant to select the candidate with the broadest overall majority base
of support. Not the candidate with the single largest block, if that is under
block is less than an overall majority (i.e. under 50%).
>
> RCV prevents the problems that round 1 vote splitting can create for
candidates, assuming that those candidates have strong broad underlying
support.
>
>
>
> On October 9, 2017 12:58:14 PM CDT, Ken B <<email obscured>> wrote:
>> On 10/9/2017 12:28 PM, Shawn Towle wrote:
>>> those who understand the system can game it
>> = = = = =
>> [KB] I'm not a DFLer, and I support Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).
>>
>> Mr. Towle, as an apparent expert on the workings of RCV, would you
>> please explain or give an example of how somebody can game
>> Minneapolis's
>> election? I've never seen either.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Ken Bearman
>> King Field neighborhood, W8-P7, SD 62, Minneapolis
>> About/contact Ken Bearman: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/kenbearman
>>
>>
>> * Work or live in Downtown Saint Paul? Take our survey:
>> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/downtownstpaulsurveyft
>>
>> * Questions about rule violations? Contact: <email obscured>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------
>> Reply: Reply-All or visit
>> http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/41aMOsDLfrN4rOWjp4pgnA
>> New Topic: stpaul-issues@forums.e-democracy.org
>> Digest: Subject: digest on
>> Leave: Subject: unsubscribe
>> Forum Home: http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/stpaul-issues
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *** - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ***
>> Work or live in Downtown Saint Paul, MN? Take our survey:
>> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/downtownstpaulsurveyft
>>
>> Help? http://e-democracy.org/support Hosting: http://OnlineGroups.Net
>
> Haudy Kazemi
> State Fair Area
> About/contact Haudy Kazemi: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/haudykazemi
>
>
> * Work or live in Downtown Saint Paul? Take our survey:
> https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/downtownstpaulsurveyft
>
> * Questions about rule violations? Contact: <email obscured>
>
>
> ------------------------
> Reply: Reply-All or visit
http://forums.e-democracy.org/r/topic/6z5dMV56jF59ADDzvKaH3x