More on Gerrymander prevention

[Michael Rouse]

----- Original Message -----
From: <DEMOREP1 at aol.com>
To: <election-methods-list at eskimo.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 6:57 PM
Subject: Re: More on Gerrymander prevention


> D- Proxy P.R.-- 2 or members per district.
>
> Each winner has a voting power in the legislative body equal to the votes
> that he/she gets.
>
> NO need to cross/break political subdivision lines.
>
> PPR districts can have larger numbers of voters in urban areas (now having
> circa 80 percent of the total voters) so that rural districts can be
smaller
> in size (with less voting powers of their district winners of course).
>

I think I understand, and I agree: To be fair, if you have a standard number
of voters per district you have to adjust the size of the districts, and if
you have a standard size of a district you need to adjust the number of
representatives or the power each representative holds.

This isn't a criticism of PPR, since I think it can be made to work, but I
think it would work best in a national election rather than in a district
election. Suppose there were two candidates that were similar in views, one
that you preferred slightly, the other slightly ahead in the polls. You
could vote your first choice, or you could give the probable representative
of your district more power. (Of course, if you had Approval voting you
could give both candidates the nod.) If it's possible that both could
represent your district, there would have to be a cutoff point -- several
thousand representatives would be a bit unwieldy, and would a
representative's pay be proportional to their power? A national election
would allow for a wider array of choices that could be elected.

I think a nationally-elected Senate and a regionally-elected House would be
a good mix. Both could be chosen with either a Condorcet completion method
or via Approval, and with Approval you could use PPR. Since the Senate would
be elected nationally, no districts are needed, but with the House you could
use centroidal Voronoi polygons. The reason for the nationally-elected
Senate would be to give voters the chance to vote for the one person who
thinks like they do and will be concerned with national issues; the reason
behind the regional House would be to protect those in each district from a
tyranny of the majority (e.g. other states ganging up on poor ol' Nevada and
putting a nucleur dump site in their backyard; at least this way they at
least have a voice).

Michael Rouse
mrouse at cdsnet.net