[EM] Electoral College-Pragmatic approach

Bart Ingles bartman at netgate.net
Wed Jan 30 22:05:40 PST 2002



Richard Moore wrote:
> 
> It would be harder to make people see the advantages of a new
> method if adopting that method fails to bring those promised
> advantages. So abolishing the EC is either a prerequisite or a
> corequisite to getting a better method in place.


Only if your focus is the U.S. Presidential election.  Any real reform
will probably have to start at the county level anyway, at least the way
elections are conducted in California.  CA Elections are administered at
the county level, so cities tend to want to wait and see what the county
will support.  And of course higher-level elections would take more work
& resources to change.

Also counties usually have some relatively minor county-wide positions,
whose elections generate little interest on their own.  Runoff elections
don't really make much sense for these positions, and it would be easier
to convince a Board of Supervisors to reform this type of election than
to touch the elections which elected the Board members themselves.  And
with approval voting, the minor seats can be reformed with no need to
purchase new voting equipment.



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