[EM] Fwd: how goes American PR?

[Jameson Quinn]

Does "American PR" have a specific meaning yet? I'm sure I'll be in favor
of it, whatever PR variant it is; but while I'm still ignorant, let me
guess a little.

I doubt it's a mixed-member system. They're good, but the US, despite (or
perhaps because of) being one of the most partisan countries around, has
too much suspicion of "party machines" for that to catch on.

So that leaves ... I guess the most-probable options are global STV or STV
in small multimember districts (3-5 members).

Again, these are both quite good systems I'd support. But if it's not too
late to offer a suggestion... I'd strongly encourage you to consider
something like PAL
representation<http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/PAL_representation>.
It's certainly not the simplest system there is, but then no PR system is
really simple. And as advantages you get:
-- High potential for 100% continuity (if the statewide gerrymander was
fairly proportional, and if third parties don't pick up any seats). This is
a HUGE advantage when selling to incumbents. I mean, seriously, tremendous.
-- Voters and/or peers have the real power to remove even the most
well-encrusted incumbent if they sour on him or her. That is, it's
voter-centric, not party-centric
-- Almost every voter gets their own local representative WHOM THEY VOTED
FOR. This is absolutely something that would resonate with US voters,
raised on tales of "No taxation without representation".

Check it out.

(And yes, I think that we can work together over PR, even if we don't see
eye-to-eye on single winner systems.)

Jameson
2011/12/3 David L Wetzell <wetzelld at gmail.com>

>
> American PR is a coming.  You must decide if you want to keep quibbling
> over the best single-winner election rule or push hard for a better mix of
> multi and single-winner election rules in the US.
>
> dlw
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Rob Richie <rr at fairvote.org>
> Date: Sat, Dec 3, 2011 at 11:05 AM
> Subject: Re: how goes American PR?
> To: David L Wetzell <wetzelld at gmail.com>
>
>
> A little slow in getting our American PR-like plans drawn, but we'll have
> them done for hte whole country in early 2012 and heat up in our
> outreach... getting some related opeds.
>
> Next year should be a good one for the idea --  lots of chances to talk
> about it.
> Rob
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 12:26 PM, David L Wetzell <wetzelld at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>
>> I wonder if tea-partiers unhappy w. the Republican party might get in on
>> it?
>>
>> dlw
>>
>
>
>
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "Respect for Every Vote and Every Voice"
>
> Rob Richie
> Executive Director
>
> FairVote
> 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
> Takoma Park, MD 20912
> www.fairvote.org  <http://www.fairvote.org> rr at fairvote.org
> (301) 270-4616
>
> Please support FairVote through action and tax-deductible donations -- see
> http://fairvote.org/donate. For federal employees, please consider  a
> gift to us through the Combined Federal Campaign (FairVote's  CFC number is
> 10132.) Thank you!
>
>
>
> ----
> Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.electorama.com/pipermail/election-methods-electorama.com/attachments/20111203/b7f590e5/attachment-0004.htm>