[EM] Kerry-now-Nader-next deal could be a 2-person deal

[Adam Tarr]

Some responses to Mike's various proposed LO2E-workarounds:

>1. Nader designating, as his electors, Kerry's electors

This will work fine in any state where your vote for president is 
considered one vote for each of the designated electors.  It will not work 
if the winner of the state gets his electors (as the votes do not transfer 
from Nader to Kerry in that case).  I have no idea which (if any) states 
use the former approach.

At any rate, Nader could use this strategy in those states only.  This 
would at least solve the problem in those states.

>2. Kerry-now-Nader-next deal for 2 voters
>
>3. Kerry-now-Nader-next deal for all the progressives

Both of these approaches are fraught with strategic problems if they are 
adopted on a significant scale.  They don't really solve the problem; they 
just displace it.

>4. Republican-Democrat deal for 2 voters
>(Someone voting for Dem as lesser evil and someone voting for Repub as 
>lesser-evil agree to both vote sincerely instead)
>
>5. Deal between progressives in swing state and non-swing state

If you can assume honesty in your "partner", both of these approaches work 
perfectly well.  (For number 5, I assume you mean a deal between 
progressives in swing state and DEMOCRATS IN A non-swing state.)  In 2000, 
the latter approach was encouraged by websites like Nadertrader.com.

>If it's objected that a dishonest participant could make this deal with 
>several people, the answer to that objection is the same as the answer to 
>the objection that s/he could violate hir voting promise: Voting is for 
>principle because your vote is unlikely to affect the outcome.

True, and as you said before, it is possible to verify each other's 
absentee ballots.