The Orgeon Initiative Revisited

[New Democracy]

Dear List members,

     I was told by Jack Alan Brown Junior to go and read the Orgeon
Consensus Initiative AGAIN. Well - I am like the "Good Soldier S" - I obey
orders - I did go and I did read it again and again. I understand it so
much better that now I can tell everyone how this weird Yea-Boo Primary is
going to function. There are two cases to consider: Case One is the race
that is already gerrymandered so that the winner is well known. Case Two is
the race that is more of a contest.

     In Case One the candidate cannot chance being in this Yea-Boo Primary
- anything weird can happen. He runs the risk of maybe not getting a
majority of yes votes. So all candidates that are serious contenders will
stay out of these primaries but they will enter the general election and
win with a majority. The Yea-Boo Primary will become a nonevent in Case One
elections.

     Case Two: Again all candidates that are serious contenders will stay
out of the Yea-Boo Primary. More now than in Case One elections because
these candidates have a higher risk of being knocked out of the general
election. Remember that if a candidate gets a majority of NO votes he
cannot be in the general election. There is no reason for a serious
candidate to be in Yea-Boo Primary. There is no reason for the people to
vote in a Yea-Boo Primary - the serious candidates will not be there. But -
if a voter wanted to monkey around, the Yea-Boo Primary is very good place
to try some cross party voting. Much better than a regular primary because
now you can vote for more that one weak candidate of another party - you
can give YES votes to several weak candidates of several other parties and
NO votes to all their better candidates. Everybody will be doing this -
think of it - here we will have an election in which people will be voting
Yes for weak candidates and No for the better candidates - this is not
progress - this is a joke - but is it harmful?

     From this Yea-Boo Primary, some loser I will call Candidate X will
gain a majority YES votes and go on to the general election. The real
candidates will also enter the general election. If one of the real
candidates win with a majority he is the winner and again the Yea-Boo
Primary is a nonevent - and maybe not harmful.

     If there is no candidate with a majority, Candidate X would win if he
was in the lead - he is allowed to win without a majority because he was in
the Yea-Boo Primary - the maybe not harmful primary. We are back to
plurality voting - there is no improvement - the more things change the
more they remain the same - but no harm has been done.

     If one of the real candidates is in the lead then we have a run-off of
the top two candidates. Now - this is an improvement, but this can be done
without the Yea-Boo Primary.

     This primary seems to be useless and if it is also harmless then it is
the same as not having any primary - I say that this is good. In a
backhanded way this Yea-Boo Primary becomes an improvement. Effectively we
get rid of the primary. The candidates will run in the general election -
which will act as both the primary and the run-off - no harm in that - it
is an improvement.

     I would say to the people of Orgeon - "Vote YES on this initiative
because you will get two improvements - one you will get rid of the primary
and two you will get the Top Two Run-off - which is a step in the correct
direction towards Preference Run-off". I am assuming that they do not have
run-off option now. On my web site I list Preference Run-off at the top of
the Ladder of Single Seat Election Methods - Top Two Run-off is two rungs
down.

     The ability of Preference Voting Methods to drop candidates and
transfer votes acts like both a built-in primary feature and a built-in
run-off feature. Preference Run-off can handle a primary election right
inside of the general election. It will collect all the vote of several
candidates of each party and put these votes on the correct choice of the
voters of each party. And then Preference Run-off will conduct a run-off
between all the candidates and produce the correct winner of the race.

     These candidataes of the same party do not need to fight and hurt each
other in the primary - also these candidates do not need to waste money in
the primary that they will need in the general election. I should think
that Political Parties and the candidates would want to do away with the
primary election - it is possible.

     Study material on Preference Voting and Run-off can be found at my web
site called New Democarcy.

Yours,



Donald Eric Davison of New Democracy at http://www.mich.com/~donald

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -