Methods of elimination in quota preferential STV

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Mr. Layton asked-

While it is unarguably crucial to discuss the ideal single winner method

(both simply in terms of the logic of majoritarian decision making on

specific issues and in cases eg presidential elections, where only one

winner is possible), are you all sure that you should be advocating any of

these systems for the election of a legislature?
---
D- The U.S.A. is in the depths of the political stone age regarding 
proportional representation (even though p.r. has been around since the 
1840's).  See

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/prlib.htm

A source of information on proportional representation elections -- 
including beginning readings, in-depth articles by scholars and 
activists, an extensive bibliography, and a guide to related Web sites. 

Current results of the minority rule gerrymanders for electing the U.S. House 
of Representatives, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. President and Vice President 
- 

A.  28.74 percent of the voters elected 218 of the 435 Representatives with 
the lowest votes in the 1998 election;
  B.  11.09 percent of the voters elected 51 of the 100 Senators with the 
lowest votes in the 1994-1996-1998 elections; and
  C.  25.20 percent of the voters defacto elected the President in the 1996 
election (in 25 States and D.C. with 270 of 538 electoral votes in the 
so-called "Electoral College").

ALL of the houses of the various State legislatures are mini-models of the 
U.S. House of Representatives (circa 25-30 percent of the voters electing a 
bare majority of the gerrymander members of each house) (due to various 
rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court using the Equal Protection Clause of the 
14th Amendment).

The various plurality winner primaries (40 States) and top 2 runoff primaries 
(10 States) make such A and B percentages much lower in reality.  Throw in 
the nonvoters and the percentages are dangerously low.

The U.S. is just waiting for the current bunch of leftwing/ rightwing 
gerrymander extremists in the U.S. Congress to enact one or more U.S. laws 
which cause political uprisings (nothing new in 5,000 plus years of political 
history).

Thus, getting a *democratic* election system for legislative bodies in the 
U.S. is something of a life or death matter.

If Bush (Gore) is elected in the *Electoral College* (U.S. Constitution, 12th 
Amendment) on 7 Nov 2000 but Gore (Bush) gets more popular votes, then such 
event may be quite enough to drive the left/right extremists in the U.S.A. to 
take action (as in Yugoslavia).

Thus, p.r. election method reforms (for legislative bodies) are *absolutely*  
(and not just *relatively*) needed along with single winner election method 
reforms (for executive and judicial offices).