[EM] Action

[Alex Small]

I notice there aren't any takers on joining a short "white paper", written
to generate press attention.  I doubt that the press would read the report
(do they ever?) but it needs to exist before we can issue press releases.
I still think a well-argued proposal for election reform by a group of
scientists who know how to sell their ideas could get some attention.

In the past couple years research on voting machines at MIT and Caltech has
gotten some coverage.  Normally the engineers building those machines are
about as obscure as the people who design mousetraps.  However, right now
this topic has some appeal.  Let's not let it go to waste.

I volunteer to research Eastern European elections, on the condition that I
get volunteers for the other sections:

1.  Abstract
2.  Advantages of Approval over plurality and IRV
3.  Australia
4.  Prospects for reform:  States where voters can bring about local and
state-wide ballot measures, states where election laws are at least
partially local (easier for grass-roots efforts), and how many state and
federal races may have been influenced by a third party in 2000 (even just
the number of such races where nobody had a majority is OK).

Any takers?

Alex