[Election-Methods] Fwd: FYI - FairVote MN Responds to Lawsuit Against IRV

[Allen Smith]

In message <391f105b0712250911k70e31d26x24bb8f7ae0f6ccc9 at mail.gmail.com> (on
25 December 2007 10:11:47 -0700), kathy.dopp at gmail.com (Kathy Dopp) wrote:
> I do find that ballots (2nd choices) of some, but not all
>voters is considered with IRV, and hence my opinion is that it does
>not treat all voters' ballots equally and should be considered illegal
>under any law that requires the ballots of all voters to be treated
>equally.

Umm... in a non-runoff FPTP single-person-position system, anyone voting
for a candidate who doesn't win has their votes not considered,
essentially. While IRV has its definite problems, I'd not say this is one of
them (indeed, given that it counts the choices (for the two top candidates)
of voters who vote for a third/whatever candidate when FPTP doesn't, this is
an argument for _FPTP_ being illegal under such a law...). However, it's
perfectly possible that courts may disagree; as can be seen with such things
as rulings that Congress is competent to determine medical necessary (as
with marijuana), courts frequently make mistakes when dealing with matters
outside of their rather limited area of expertise (said area being the law,
as opposed to reality...).

	-Allen

-- 
Allen Smith			         http://cesario.rutgers.edu/easmith/
There is only one sound argument for democracy, and that is the argument
that it is a crime for any man to hold himself out as better than other men,
and, above all, a most heinous offense for him to prove it. - H. L. Mencken