2003.03.11
2003.03.11
a long time ago, just after bush got elected, i ranted and raved about our election system. i ranted mostly about the people crying about how nader lost the election for bush. not that i wanted bush elected; gore was the lesser of two “evils” in my book.
unlike most people who cry about these things, i actually proposed a solution based on what i had learned the australians used in their elections, which is here called instant runoff voting (IRV). i don’t want to go into the details here because the system is far more clearly defined on these sites (and these).
this system, if implemented, would have seen gore win the last election. for you republicans who are crying foul, it would have seen the votes cast for perot going finally to your candidate of choice (as he ran in a few elections). no one loses with instant runoff voting (well, someone loses the election, but that’s not what i mean), everyone wins. in fact IRV can give a stronger mandate to an electoral victor because s/he will have more votes, yet can also indicate areas where the victor needs to focus (like the republicans needing to pay attention to the votes originally cast for perot indicate, or for nader in the case of the democrats).
IRV can also, and this is something i appreciate, allow other parties to flourish and grow because voting for them initially will not detract from the two current most powerful parties ability to win elections. it is the only system that (simply) allows for a majority vote win with more than two parties.
if you are not familar with instant runoff voting please check out the links above. if you still have questions, feel free to send me an email and i will do my best to answer your questions.
Categorized: political rights thoughts
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