[EM] Staggering elections (was: Re: Holding byelections with PR-STV)

[Jameson Quinn]

>
> For example, if there were 2 million voters at the last general
> election, then the thresholds might be
>
> Year 1: 1 million
> Year 2: 1 million
> Year 3: 750k
> Year 4: 500k
> Year 5: 250k
> Year 6: 0
>
>
Actually, I think that these numbers are too low. A government should have
at least one year to do things which are initially unpopular but will work
out in the long run. I'd make it 1.5 million in year 1.

For a more complicated solution, a recall could involve 3 steps: signature
gathering (test of committment for opponents), polling (preliminary, easier
test for breadth of opposition), and voting (official count of opposition).
All of these could have thresholds which decrease over time, and the polling
threshold would be set to have no election if it were 95% certain the
incumbent would win.

They could also have higher thresholds for non-constructive opposition. For
instance, 10K "throw the bum out" signatures are worth as much as only 5K
"replace him with Mary Smith" signatures.
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