[EM] using single seat elections as a first stage for a PR election

[raphfrk at netscape.net]

 Sorry about re-sending this. I forgot to change the title, and this 
 post has nothing to do with the previous title.
 
 http://rangevoting.org/PropRep.html
 
 "You want to get both best possible quality & accountability and best
 possible representation"
 
 This is an interesting point. What about an assembly elected as follows:
 
 The country is split into 3*N districts and the districts are grouped
 into groups of 15 districts.
 
 Each district elects 1 representative using approval with a reasonable
 one seat system.
 
 The groups then each elect 5 candidates from 15 first round winners
 using PR-STV or some other PR system where the voters get to 
 pick who gets elected.
 
 In theory, both ballots could be cast at the same time. However,
 having to rank all candidates for 15 districts might be pushing it
 a little. This headache could be lessened by allowing voters to 
 vote for their favorite candidates and then vote for party. (the
 party would only matter if the vote has to transfer past the
 candidate listed on the ballot). Another option would be that they
 could vote by district for the later options.
 
 Step 1 results in higher quality candidates and step 2 results in
 proportionality in representation.
 
 In fact, maybe there could be a "Winner's and a Loser's House" (though
 you probably wouldn't want to call them that :) ).
 
 Alternatively, after the PR-STV step, the 2 condorcet winners of the 
 remaining candidates could be elected to the upper house.
 
 Obviously, whichever house is more powerful would have to elect 
 candidates first. This gets you a (sorta) PR based lower House and 
 a single seat based lower House.
 
 One issue is that the resulting house would probably be slightly biased
 to the districts that elected its members. OTOH, this creates an 
 incentive for districts to pick a "good" candidate ... though that might 
 take things back to the 2 party system (as the best way to get 
 your candidate elected is to pick one from a reliable party ... 
 though with PR that just means pick a party that will likely get 1 
 person elected).
 
 Another way of looking at it is that ballot access is based on the first
 stage election.
 
 This could be taken to extreme and completely decoupling the 2
 elections. There could be regular "ballot access" elections and
 only people who have won at least one ballot access election 
 are allowed to stand for office. However, the election for office
 itself would be PR based. The ballot access election districts
 might cover 10% of the country. In the US, they could even
 be the States. 
 
    Raphfrk
 --------------------
 Interesting site
 "what if anyone could modify the laws"
 
 www.wikocracy.com 
   
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