The Straw Ballots of the Straw Polls

[New Democracy]

Dear list members,

     I feel that the best way to advertise new election methods is to
conduct straw polls whenever there is a real municipal election to be held.


     The interest of the public in elections is at its highest just before
the real election - that would be the time when the most people would
respond. The release of the results about one week before the municipal
election would be of interest to both the people that responded and many of
those that did not respond.

     We could tell the public that this would be the results of the
election if such and such a method were used. The public would be in the
position of being able to compare the real election with the straw poll.
Some of the public may prefer the results from the straw poll and think:
"Why not do it this way in the real election". We will be showing people -
what could have been!

     Endorsements are fine, but the best endorsements come from the people
themselves.

     If we were to go to the time, effort, and cost of conducting a straw
poll then we should include all the major election races on this straw
ballot - including single seat races. And we should design the ballot with
all the best features of election reform.

    If I were to lay out the straw ballot I would do the following: I would
of course have the city council elected by Preference Voting (same as STV).
I would also have the mayor elected by Preference Voting - using the
run-off feature part of Preference Voting - known as Preference Run-off.

     I would collect all the candidate names of the nearest twenty Federal
House Districts and list these names in one column so that the voters could
try their hand at voting for the House of Reprensentives using a method of
full representation - Preference Voting.

     I would also collect the names of the candidates for U.S. President
and put these names together - if that race was also being held at the same
time. This would give the people a taste of voting directly for the
President and also the added good taste of being able to use a run-off in
the event their first preference is last in the tally - the people might
like doing it this way.

     At the bottom of each list of candidates I would give the people the
option to vote for None of the Above.

     I would not have any party labels on the ballot - no political
campaigning on the ballot. Besides - most people prefer to vote for the
candidates not the parties.

     This is what I would do if I were to lay out the ballot. What would you do?

     In general I would like to know what you would do to promote election
reforms because I want to construct a collection of ways on how we can
promote and maybe gain election reforms. I intend this collection to be
filled by good ideas from anyone and everyone. So - if you have any ideas -
let me know about them.

     It is one thing to talk about election reforms  - it is another thing
to gain election reforms.

Yours sincerely,

Don,

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

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