[EM] the 'who' and the 'what'

Dave Ketchum davek at clarityconnect.com
Sun Sep 28 12:30:13 PDT 2008


On Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:08:19 +0100 Raph Frank wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 3:25 AM, Dave Ketchum <davek at clarityconnect.com> wrote:
> 
>>My goal is using Condorcet, but recognizing that everything costs money, wo
>>we need to be careful as to expenses.
>>
>>Thus I see:
>>    Condorcet as the election method.
>>    But then see no value in a "condorcet party".
>>    Also then see no value in primaries, but know parties see value in such.
>>    And no value in runoffs - Plurality needs runoffs because of the way
>>voters cannot express their thoughts - but Condorcet has no similar problem.
> 
> 
> Well, the advantage is that it might be a way to effectively get
> condorcet without the need to first switch away from plurality.
> 
I do not see your logic, but anything that gets exposure to true Condorcet 
has possibilities.
> 
> 
>>What value might the state see as reason for paying for such?
>>
> 
> 
> Don't the states currently part fund the party primaries?
> 
State funds exist, but question here is justification for spending more.
> 
>>What value might voters see in this?
> 
> 
> No that much.  One advantage is that they don't have to fully switch
> to a new voting system.  They get to see how it works first.
> 
> 
>>Who does the "just pick" since voters can claim ownership of the right?
> 
> 
> Would depend on the party, they would need to have rules for doing the
> selection.
> 
"just pick" are your words - party rules likely forbid this.
> 
>>Who justifies paying expense of a primary here?
> 
> 
> The party gets to claim that it respects the opinion of the voters,
> and also picking a more popular candidate increases the chance of
> winning.
> 
> 
>>>I guess the parties could still put up the 40 and 60 candidates.
>>>However, I wonder if they would prefer the other party to win rather
>>>than a compromise candidate.
>>
>>Now we are back to "who decides".
> 
> 
> Each party decides.  I meant that even if there was condorcet, the 2
> parties would still pick candidates somehow, so there would be 2 major
> candidate, neither of which would be a condorcet winner based purely
> on policies.
> 
Looking out the window I see Obama and Clinton.  In a Condorcet world the 
Democrats might find it best to let both run against McCain, etc.
> 
>>Part of all this is desire for a fair chance to win.
> 
> 
> The parties are always going to be able to help their candidate win.

Back to Obama and Clinton.
-- 
  davek at clarityconnect.com    people.clarityconnect.com/webpages3/davek
  Dave Ketchum   108 Halstead Ave, Owego, NY  13827-1708   607-687-5026
            Do to no one what you would not want done to you.
                  If you want peace, work for justice.






More information about the Election-Methods mailing list