[EM] An `Expert' is someone from out of town

Tue Sep 21 07:19:10 PDT 1999

Dear Ryland,

     Proportional Representation(PR) would be an important improvement in
the election of representatives, but it will not solve any campaign finance
problems.
     Power to make campaign rules must be taken from away from the
representatives and given to the citizens by way of using initiatives -
easy initiatives.
     This is called Direct Democracy.

     In Direct Democracy the people have the power to directly control
their representatives, their employees.
     My web site tells more about Direct Democracy. You will find it at:
               http://www.mich.com/~donald

     My site also contains text on proportional representation. If you must
stay with PR as a hopeful solution, then I invite you to start with the
following page of text from my site:

Regards, Donald,
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             The Level Plans for Multi-Seat Elections

<B>First I want to discuss what we should be looking for when we are
shopping for a better election method to elect lawmakers.</B><P>

I. We should be looking for more Proportional Representation(PR).

II. We should be looking for the option that allows us to vote for
Candidates and/or Political Parties in the same race.

III. We should be looking for an increase in the Quality of Members Elected.

IV. We should be looking for a method that regards every voter, every
candidate, and every party with equality.

V. We should be looking for Simplicity.

I. Proportional Representation: We should be looking for more PR and some
way to evaluate the PR of different methods. The ideal proportional
representation election has two accomplishments:

     One: Every vote will end up on one or another of the winning
candidates. Which means that every voter is represented and the people with
the same concerns will be represented in proportion to their numbers - they
will have proportional representation.<P>

     Two: Every winning candidate will have received the same number of
votes. Which means that every member represents an equal proportion of the
voters. The voter's concerns are put into equal portions and then each
portion is represented with equality.<P>

     Now, no method is perfect, so it will be rare for this to happen in
even the best of methods, but these two accomplishments can be regarded as
goals to work towards. We must look to these goals when we evaluate any
lawmaker election method.<P>
     If a method has many exhausted and/or wasted votes then that method
will fall short when compared to some other method that has less wasted
votes. If a method elects members with wide differences of votes then that
method also falls short.<P>

 II. We should be looking for that option that allows us to vote for
candidates and/or political parties in the same race. If people had the
option to vote for a candidate or party, over half would vote for party.
This means that these people do not know the candidates well enough to vote
for them, but they do know their parties and they will vote the party of
their choice. Many people want to be able to vote for party - they should
be allowed to do so. If a person does not know the candidates well enough
to make a good selection then he should not vote for a candidate, but he
still has a vote and he should be allowed to use his vote to select a party
- a method must allow him this option.<P>

III. We should be looking for an increase in the quality of the elected
members. The quality of the elected members can be increased if the
percentage of informed voters is increased. One way to do this is to allow
the uninformed voter to vote for party instead of voting for a candidate.
This will increase the percentage of informed voters who will be voting for
candidates. The percentage of informed voters could easily double. This
cannot do anything but help improve the quality of the elected members and
inturn improve democracy.

IV. We should be looking for a method that regards every voter, every
candidate, and every party with equality. Any design feature in which a
voter or candidate or party is not treated with equality can be considered
to be a flaw of the method. Any method that claims to be the best must have
less flaws than any of the other methods - or at least be able to offset
flaws.

  V. We should be looking for simplicity. Simple is good, provided the
method still delivers the needed quality.

<center> <A NAME="plan">.
<table border=4> <tr> <th width=520>
 <FONT SIZE=+2> Ten Levels of Election Reform</FONT>
</th> </tr> </table> </center> <BR>

<A NAME="simple"><center>.
<table border=4> <tr> <th width=520>
 A Simple Walk Through to Election Reform 
</th> </tr> </table>

            Ten Upgrades of the Single Seat District Election Method

     I would like to present to you a series of ten upgrades that will give
us ten new levels of improvement over the Single Seat District election
method. Each upgrade will result in a better election method than the one
before. If the public selected any one of these levels of upgrades as their
new election system, they would have that much more improvement over the
single seat district election method. It is merely a question of how far
the citizens would want to change their election method. As you read these
upgrades, you can mentally walk through each Level, one by one, and see the
single seat method slowly improve with each upgrade.<P>

Note: To continue: go online to: http://www.mich.com/~donald/plans.html#simple
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 Technology for Country Folk

 1.       LOG ON:  Makin a wood stove hotter.
 2.      LOG OFF:  Don't add no more wood.
 3.      MONITOR:  Keepin an eye on the wood stove.
 4.     DOWNLOAD:  Gettin the farwood off the truk.
 5.   MEGA HERTZ:  When yer not kerful gettin the farwood.
 6.  FLOPPY DISC:  Whatcha git from tryin to carry too much farwood.
 7.          RAM:  That thar thing whut splits the farwood.
 8.   HARD DRIVE:  Gettin home in the winter time.
 9.       PROMPT:  What the mail ain"t in the winter time.
10.      WINDOWS:  Whut to shut wen it"s cold outside.
11.       Screen:  Whut to shut wen it"s blak fly season.
12.         BYTE:  Whut them dang flys do.
13.         CHIP:  Munchies fer the TV.
14.   MICRO CHIP:  Whut's in the bottom of the munchie bag.
15.        MODEM:  Whut'cha did to the hay fields.
16.   DOT MATRIX:  Old Dan Matrix's wife.
17.      LAP TOP:  Whar the kitty sleeps.
18.     KEYBOARD:  Whar ya hang the dang keys.
19.     SOFTWARE:  Them dang plastic forks and knifs.
20.        MOUSE:  Whut eats the grain in the barn.
21.    MAINFRAME:  Holds up the barn roof.
22.         PORT:  Fancy Flatlander wine.
23.        ENTER:  Northerner talk fer "C'mon in Y'all"
24.    MOUSE PAD:  That hippie talk fer the rat hole
25.       RANDOM
          ACCESS
          MEMORY:  Wen ya cain't 'member whut y paid fer the rifle
                   wen yore wife asks.

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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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                            N E W S L E T T E R

                    Worldwide Direct Democracy Newsletter
                     Four Issues per Year by Postal Mail
             Cost per year: Czech Republic 200 Kc,  Europe 12 DM
                          Outside of Europe  $10

              Make check payable to: Mr. Bohuslav Binka
              Mail to:  Mr. Bohuslav Binka
                        Bellova 15
                        Brno 623 00
                        Czech Republic
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                         N E W    D E M O C R A C Y
              A Source of Study Material for Political Change

                        http://www.mich.com/~donald
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