[EM] Voting systems theory and proportional representationvssimple representation. (Abd ul-Rahman Lomax)

[Abd ul-Rahman Lomax]

At 09:46 AM 3/15/2010, Terry Bouricius wrote:
>Why would one want to have voters be restricted by the list order of one's
>favorite candidate, instead of allowing the voters themselves to reorder
>the party list (as happens with OPEN list systems - unlike closed party
>list PR)? Is the idea to allow candidates to list candidates outside their
>own party? Would parties put up with that from candidates they nominate,
>or wouldn't they  insist on that level of party loyalty to receive the
>party's nomination?

Candidate list is a proposal that is related to Asset Voting, only is 
fixed, single-ballot. Candidate list allows independent candidates to 
bypass political parties. Of course the parties would oppose it!

Whether a party would actually allow this, though, depends on how 
they perceive it as affecting their power.

Sure, you could set up rules to disallow candidates from nominating 
candidates outside the party. But could you come up with a public 
policy reason for this? ("For the health of our political system, we 
must discourage any difference of opinion within political parties, 
and require parties to make single, monolithic decisions." What does 
that sound like?)

Candidate list, in the end, would return power to the electorate, 
which is no longer bound to support a "party" in order to cast an 
effective vote.

As Lewis Carroll noticed, in 1883, voters know best who is their 
favorite, that information is relatively clean and solid. Expecting 
the average voter to know more than that is expecting what is 
probably impossible.

Party list does deal with this, but effectively confines the voter to 
supporting a party, rather than individuals, thus deferring power 
into the hands of whatever process the parties use. Candidate list is 
quite direct.

There is no need to "restrict voters by the list order of one's 
favorite candidate." Rather, as I understand Carroll's proposal, I 
don't have the actual text of it, the method is STV. The reversion to 
the choices of the candidate is only if the voter's personal ballot 
becomes exhausted. It is to avoid wasting the vote.

It is also possible to allow voters to vote for a party list. You'd 
rather support your favorite party than your favorite candidate? 
Fine. That, really, should be your choice.

Power to the voters.

Count all the Votes.