[EM] Re: the simplest election reform

[Araucaria Araucana]

On 15 Jun 2005 at 14:25 UTC-0700, Abd ulRahman Lomax wrote:
> It *might* be a much easier reform to accomplish. Approval is
> extremely simple to understand and, as often noted, no ballot
> changes are needed, beyond some changes in ballot instructions. The
> fact appears to be that these changes would simply make the real
> conditions of voting more closely correspond to what people who are
> not informed would already expect. You have to know that overvotes
> will be discarded, and many voters don't know that, and I have never
> seen the fact printed on a ballot. Without specific knowledge, I
> would simply assume that all votes would be counted, and, indeed, it
> appears that many voters do have that idea.
>
> Any reform at all might break the logjam. This one would probably
> change outcomes gradually, not all at once, except possibly in some
> close races.

Approval voting is a reasonable first step.  But what do you do about
current top-two runoffs, or primaries in general?

Most of the highly-regarded single-winner methods discussed here
involve eliminating the primary in addition to changing the ballot and
tally methods.

Q
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