Electoral College Reform starting with one or a few states

[donald at mich.com]

Greetings,

After some discussion on this list, the following is my latest text on this
idea of Steve's - starting electoral reform in one or more states - I would
not have thought of this being possible - thank you Steve.
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(Electoral College Reform text as of 10-21-96)

Electoral College Reform starting with one or a few states

We can start Electoral reform in only one state. One state out of fifty may
seem like the reform would have little if any influence but the reform in a
single state can cause numbers to change. Besides the reform in one state
can act like a seed crystal and create a chain reaction into many states.

Lacking a national reform of the Electoral College the following is my plan.

Dictionary of terms

Candidate within reach of a win:
This means that in the event a candidate were to receive all the electoral
votes of the Reformed States added to the electoral votes he has already
received from the UNreformed states he would have a majority of the total
national votes and he would be the President-elect. It is possible to have
more than one candidate within reach of a win.

Reformed States:
These are the states that have agreed to work together by using this reform
plan. The balance of the states are known as the UNreformed states.

Single-Winner Method:
There are a number of election methods for single seat races that could be
used to compute the many selections made by the voters.

Vote-Sums:
On election day each voter will be allowed to make more than one selection.
This series of selections will become a label attached to each vote. The
votes that happen to have the same label will be collected together to form
a Vote-Sum. For example: 35,824BCE - this means that 35,824 voters selected
candidate B as their first selection, then candidate C, and candidate E was
their last selection. There will be many Vote-Sums, each with a different
combination on its label. Each candidate will have their name first on the
labels of a number of Vote-Sums.

Outline of Electoral College Reform Plan

One: On election day the voters will be allowed to make more than one selection.

Two: After the election the popular votes of the candidates are collected
into Vote-Sums for each of the Reformed States. Then these popular
Vote-Sums are converted into electoral Vote-Sums. This is done by dividing
the electoral votes of each state according to the popular votes of each
candidate in the same state. Next we add the electoral Vote-Sums of all the
Reformed States together - label by label. This gives us the electoral
Vote-Sums for the entire Reformed States.

Three: We now check the electoral vote counts of all the candidates in the
UNreformed states. If two or more candidates would be within reach of a
win, we drop all other candidates from the labels of the electoral
Vote-Sums in the Reformed States.

Four: The electoral votes of these dropped candidates are reassigned to the
remaining candidates per the other selections made by the voters.

Five: If only one or no candidate is within reach of a win, we do not drop
any candidates. All candidates will be entered in the single-winner race
coming up next.

Six: The two or more or all candidates remaining will have their Vote-Sums
computed by some single-winner method in order to fine a winner in the
Reformed States.

Seven: This winner shall receive all the electoral votes of the Reformed
States. These votes will be added to the electoral votes this candidate has
already received in the UNreformed states.

The Electoral College Reform Plan

One or more states can enter into a reform plan that can have an influence
on the national presidential election. A number of states can agree to work
together on this plan by polling all their electoral votes - agreeing on
some single winner method - and giving the winner of this method all the
electoral votes of all the Reformed States.

On election day the voters of the Reformed States will be allowed to make
more than one selection when they vote. They will vote for one candidate as
their first selection - another as their second selection and make as many
selections as they care to make. They will be free to vote as their first
selection the candidate they feel is the best for the job even if that
candidate is low in the polls. They will not be wasting their vote because
in the event their first pick is dropped their vote is not dropped - their
vote is salvaged and placed on their next selection.

After the election the popular votes of the candidates are collected into
Vote-Sums for each of the Reformed States.  While there may be millions of
voters making different selections there will be a limited number of
combinations. For example - if four candidates are running there will only
be sixty-four different combinations - which means we will only have to
deal with sixty-four Vote-Sums.

Then these popular Vote-Sums are converted into electoral Vote-Sums. This
is done by dividing the electoral votes of each state according to the
popular votes of each candidate. Each state has a different ratio of
population to electoral vote. If we are to preserve the electoral vote
count of each state we must convert the popular vote sums into electoral
vote sums at the point before we combine the results of the Reform States
together. We should divide each electoral vote down to at least the second
or third decimal place. The electoral vote division should show the
difference between any candidates that are close in the popular vote.

After every state of the Reformed States has converted its results into
electoral Vote-Sums, we add the electoral Vote-Sums of all the Reformed
States together - label by label. This gives us the electoral Vote-Sums for
the entire Reformed States.

We now check the electoral vote counts of all the candidates in the
UNreformed states. If two or more would be within reach of a win, we drop
all other candidates from consideration. We do this by dropping their names
from all the labels of the electoral Vote-Sums in the Reformed States. The
reason we drop candidates is to force the Reformed States to pick between
only the candidates within reach of a win when there are two or more within
reach of a win. When a contest exists between two or more candidates that
can win it all, we do not want the possible problem of the Reformed States
picking some other candidate that does not have enough additional votes in
the UNreformed states to win it all.

In order for a reform plan to work the Reformed States must be put in the
position of being the King Maker whenever possible. Hopefully - in most
elections the Reformed States will be deciding which of two or more
candidates will becomes the President. This power will attract other states
to join the Reformed States until all states are in the reform group of
states.

This is the most important part of this plan - this is the key - without
this edge there is no reason for additional states to join the one or few
reform states - the reform fails.

The electoral Vote-Sums of these dropped candidates are reassigned to the
remaining candidates per the other selections made by the voters. All
voters in the Reformed States are to have a say in the final winner of
their reform group of states.

If only one or no candidate is within reach of a win, we do not drop any
candidates. All candidates will be entered in the single-winner race coming
up next. The policy is changed because in these cases the Reformed States
are not in the position of being the deciding power between two of more
candidates that are in reach of a win. In other words the Reformed States
cannot play the King Maker. Therefore we impose no conditions on which
candidates will be allowed to compete, instead we allow the mathematics of
some single-winner method to decide who will get the electoral votes of the
Reformed States.

The Vote-Sums of the two or more or all candidates remaining will be used
by the single winner method to determine one winner in the Reformed States.
I will be using the Instant Runoff as the single-winner method in my
presentation. Others will advocate some other method. The choice of method
will be open to the decision of the Reformed States.

Using the Instant Runoff method I will continue - We now drop the last of
these two or more or all candidates and reassign his votes. We keep
dropping the last candidates one by one and reassigning their votes until
we only have one candidate remaining - this candidate is the winner in the
Reformed States.

The winner of the race shall receive all the electoral votes of the
Reformed States. How many votes he receives will depend on how many states
have joined the Reformed States. These votes will be added to the electoral
votes this candidate has already received in the UNreformed states.

When the number of electoral votes of the Reformed States reaches fifty
percent plus one of the national total, we no longer need to pay attention
to the candidates' electoral vote count in the UNreformed states. The
Reformed States now have the total power in themselves to decide the
election of the President. All candidates will be allowed to run - we
merely work the Vote-Sums of the Reformed States using some single winner
method and the winner is the President-elect.

Also at this point: If the other states wish to have a vote in future
elections for President they will have to join the Reformed States. When
all of the other states do join in, the entire nation will be reformed in
regard to the Electoral College.

If this system had been used by a few states in the 1992 presidential
election, Ross Perot being below the top two and not in reach of a win,
would have been dropped. The people who voted for Perot in these few
Reformed States would have received the freedom to have their votes
salvaged and placed on either Bush or Clinton. This may have changed the
electoral count for these few states of a reform group. This may have
changed the national results.

This may not have changed the national results but if and when more states
join the plan, the outcome of future presidential elections will be changed
for the better. The first improvement will be that we will not be electing
a president by a minority when the majority wanted someone else - but more
important, the voters will be free to vote for any candidate and yet the
voters can arrange for their votes to be there when the final decision is
made between the last two candidates.
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Donald at New Democracy http://www.mich.com/~donald