[EM] Re: the simplest election reform

[Anthony Duff]

--- Araucaria Araucana <araucaria.araucana at gmail.com> wrote:

> But sneaking approval in this way doesn't solve the more general
> problem of eliminating the primary.  I *do* want to eliminate the
> primary, since it is merely an artifact of plurality/SVFPP.

The primary is not "merely an artifact of plurality/SVFPP."  More
fundamentally, it is the mechanism for the party to choose a single
candidate.  

It is not reasonable to force a party not to choose an official
candidate.  Is this what you want?  For example, do you think you
should have been able to vote for McCain as well as Bush in 2000?  

Having both run as republicans in the real election would not be in
the interests of the republican party or of either McCain or Bush. 
Even if the election method doesn't have the the vote splitting
problem, there is still the problem of splitting public recognition
of the party's candidate, and of splitting the party's campaign
funding base.

Perhaps there was something specific about the primary that you want
eliminated, but every party has to be able to choose a candidate.

Anthony


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