Stopping Plurality

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Just a friendly reminder- the election enemy for executive and judicial
offices is ultra-dangerous plurality nominations and plurality elections (and
not any election method that gets rid of the chief defect of plurality-
namely, the nomination or election of candidates by minorities).   Note the
plurality election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860 lead directly to Civil War (with
some 620,000 dead) and note the continuing paralysis/gridlock with the 2
plurality elections of Mr. Clinton.

I note again that the D's/R's try to maintain the facade of majority rule by
having top 2 runoff primaries in the 10 old D one party (but now 2 party)
southern States and by having unequal ballot access laws such that most
states effectively have only D and R candidates (or 2 "nonpartisans") for
most offices in the general election so that the general election winner
generally gets a majority of the votes in the electoral area involved.  

I note that Louisiana has an open primary for all candidates- if the primary
winner gets a majority of the primary votes, then he/she is elected.  If not,
then the top 2 in the primary (even if both D or both R) go to the general
election.

All election methods have strategy problems (a) with getting a majority of
all voters winner (e.g. 51 of 100 voters) (such as in plain Condorcet- due to
truncations, order reversal possibilities) and/or (b) in head to head
comparisons (such as in approval voting and instant runoff). 

However, I note that approval voting, Condorcet and instant runoff each have
a special feature- 
Approval voting- picking a majority winner,
Condorcet- picking a head to head winner that beats each other candidate
(assuming no circular ties),
Instant runoff- dropping one candidate at a time and ending up with a
majority winner.

Thus, I now suggest that a combination of AV, C and IRO is a distinct
possibility.  This is an ongoing reform process so no one should be obsessed
with *the one and only* method. 

Purists will of course say that strategy problems are tripled and that the
combination of AV, C and IRO (ACI) is too complex.

My response in advance is - GET REAL.  The people will NOT pick any method
that on paper permits minority of all voters winners for U.S. President,
Governors, Mayors, Sheriffs, Judges, etc.   Ranking executive and judicial
candidates will be a giant improvement (made much easier if p.r. is also
used- see below).   Dropping the lowest candidate with the fewest votes in
case of circular ties is common sense.  

Thus, I thank the authors of AV, C and IRO for their individual efforts with
their combined synergy [working together for folks without dictionaries].

Multi-member legislative offices are included in any reasonable proportional
representation method (noting that with a proxy p.r. method Condorcet and
Instant runoff can be used-- each of the final N (2 or more) winners per
district or at large having a voting power equal to the number of votes
received).