[EM] Making a Bad Thing Worse

[Raph Frank]

On Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 8:54 PM, Dave Ketchum <davek at clarityconnect.com> wrote:
> In FPTP parties NEED primaries - a party cannot afford to divide its
> members' votes among multiple candidates.

Well, in the UK, the party leadership decides who the candidates are.
Ministers are generally assigned to safe seats for example.

> A DISASTER!  Mechanics become difficult.  Voters cannot learn enough of all
> to sort them out.  Etc.
>     A party with sufficient voters can reasonably nominate a candidate.
>     Makes sense for a reasonable sized group of voters to nominate a
> candidate without formally getting involved in parties for this.
>
> As to losers - they chose to try for party backing and got rejected - not
> the same as someone who only got approval outside the parties.

Well, there is a balance between having hundreds of candidates and
having only two.

The ballot access laws should allow sincere candidates to stand.

> Intent is to prevent large states from swamping small states.
>
> Having two houses is a standard thought - single houses too easily wander
> into stupid thoughts.

Right, and also, it is recommended that they are elected in different
manners.  If both Houses use the same electorate and method, then they
are copies of each other.