[EM] [Election-Methods] [english 94%] PR favoring racialminorities

[Raph Frank]

On 8/18/08, Jonathan Lundell <jlundell at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Aug 18, 2008, at 2:00 AM, James Gilmour wrote:
> > I have to say I just do not understand the obsession with "lists".
>  An assumption, I think, that voters won't have the patience and attention
> span to evaluate a long list of candidates, and need the crutch of party
> guidance to cast their votes.

I think a system that requires people to rank 10-20+
candidates is going to run into trouble.

Australia is the perfect example where
voters just don't bother (and thus just vote
for one of the party lists).

Ofc, maybe they would fill out the ballot in its
entirety if that was the only way to actually
cast a valid ballot.  However, in that case
they would probably not pay much attention
to what they are actually doing and would
probably rank 'don't care' candidates in the
order listed on the ballot.  Forcing them to
do that doesn't help democracy.

Giving the option of a list allows a compromise
to be found.  Your first and second rankings
are normally the most important in PR-STV and as
long as they remain under the control of the
voter, then the balance of power remains
with the voters rather than with the party
leadership.