[EM] Six Upgrades to the Single Seat District method
Donald E Davison
donald at mich.com
Tue May 18 05:48:32 PDT 1999
------------- Forwarded Letter ------------
From: Richard Foy
To: James Ogle, Donald E Davison <donald at mich.com>
Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 19:04:19 -0800
Organization: ACLU, AI, UDC, VFP
Subject: Vermont's Two Member Districts (fwd)
Hi James,
This message from Donald on multiseat districts in Vermont is fascinating.
Some observations and thoughts:
It is noted that the Democrats won the majority of the seats in both
the single seat and two seat districts. I suspect this is a result
of a redistricting that was controlled by the Democrats.
I also note that the largest third party did better in the two seat
districts than their percentage of the voters while all the other
smaller parties did worse. That is the vote tended to become more
of a three party vote.
I note that in California, the Assembly, Senate, and Governor are all
controlled by the Democrats, who are the majority party on
registration. I think this might mean that this would be a good time
to start an initiative to require the State to go to multiseat
districts in the redistricting of 2000.
I also know my State Senator Debra Bowen reasonably well, having
helped her a bit with demonstrating the Internet after she had AB
1604 passed to require the state to have info on the net. I think I
will put together a bit of a briefing for her on the advantages
of multiseat districts. I'll try to get her to do something about it
in the legislature.
I also note that the women did better in the two seat districts than
in the single seat districts. This might help to get women groups
behind any petition.
I am not sure when redistricting occurs but I believe it is after
the year 2000 elections.
Do either of you have any thoughts on this?
May your days be cheerful and bright!
Richard
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Dear Richard,
I do not know when redistricting occurs, but I do have some thoughts
on something that you might want to include in your briefing to Senator
Debra Bowen. I present the following upgrades:
Six Upgrades to the Single Seat District Method
If we are starting with Single Seat Districts using Plurality(FPTP),
then what follows is a series of Upgrades I have written in order to
improve on our starting position.
Upgrade One: Pair up all the Single Seat Districts to form two member
districts. Two votes per voter in each district, which is
Plurality-at-Large. Top two candidtes are the winners
Upgrade Two: Same number and size of districts. The change in this upgrade
will be to only have one vote per voter, which is Limited Voting, a
proportional representation method. The top two candidates are still the
winners.
Upgrade Three: Same number and size of districts. Same one vote per voter.
The change in this upgrade will be to allow the voter to rank choices, and
the method in this upgrade will be Choice Run-Off(Alternative Vote). The
top two candidates are still the winners.
Upgrade Four: Same number and size of districts. Same one vote per voter.
The change in this upgrade will be to use Choice Voting(STV) to work the
ballots down to two candidates. Those two are the two winner in the
district. Same quota is used for all districts - total votes divided by
total members.
Upgrade Five: Same number of districts. The change in this upgrade is to
give the voter two votes, one for Choice Voting in his district and one for
any party that has at least one candidate running in any district.
Choice Voting is to work the district votes down to two candidates.
The top candidate is the district elected member.
All the candidates of all the districts are to be placed on party
lists in an order according to the highest number of votes they reached
during their district elections. The elected district members are to be
placed at the top of their party lists. Independent candidates are to have
a list.
The party votes are tallied and the balance of the members to be
elected are decided by the Party List method.
This upgrade is a form of Mixed Member Proportional
Representation(MMP) with some differences. Upgrade Five uses Choice Voting
in the districts and Open Party Lists.
Upgrade Six: Same number of districts as five. The change in this upgrade
is to combine the two votes per voter by allowing the voter to rank
candidates and/or parties with one vote. There are more details to this
Upgrade Six, but in general it is something like the following:
There will be no seperate primary. The primary is to be in the general
election. One member will still be elected in each district per Choice
Voting. Party List will still elect the balance of the members.
The value of this upgrade is that it avoids the distortions of cross
party voting that occur in MMP and primaries.
As of now, I do not have a number seven upgrade.
Whichever upgrade Senator Debra Bowen decides to select, there will be
improvement.
Regards,
Donald
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T H E C O D E O F H O N O R F O R R E F O R M A C T I V I S T S
Any group of reform activists that are thinking about a petition drive
to place a proposal on the ballot are to present their proposal beforehand
to all other reform activists that they know of. The time for debate and
negative comments is before the petition stage. Once the group makes its
final proposal and enters the petition stage, the debates and negative
comments by all reform activists is to cease.
At this time each activist is to make an honest evaluation. If the
initiative will improve government then each activist is to find it in his
heart to support the initiative, even if it is not exactly what the
activist would like.
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| Q U O T A T I O N |
| "Democracy is a beautiful thing, |
| except that part about letting just any old yokel vote." |
| - Age 10 |
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