[EM] Proxy Direct Democracy

[Michael Allan]

Dear Mike (and Kathy),

Mike wrote:
> And a proxy needn't be a political figure, party leader, candidate,
> or anyone special.  One's proxy could be _anyone_ whom one wants to
> vote for hir. (As designated for a particular issue-category, or a
> particular vote, or as pre-chosen default proxy).  It could be a
> friend, family member, or any kind of public figure or advocate,
> etc.

I see such flexibility as a step toward the more general facility of
giving the elector hir own ballot to do with as s/he pleases.  In that
sense, proxy voting is a partial solution to the problems described
here in my thesis, which I trace precisely to the lack of such a
facility: http://zelea.com/project/autonomy/a/fau/fau.xht

I do technical work with proxy voting myself for project Votorola.
See the figure caption at bottom for links to the voting theory:
http://zelea.com/project/votorola/home.xht

> As You [Kathy] suggested, you could designate a different proxy for
> various kinds of issues. But there could be different opinions on
> which issues are in which categories, unless vote issues are
> specifically designated by categories. For that reason, it might be
> necessary to designate such special proxies at the time of
> voting. But maybe not: Maybe, if vote issues are
> officially-designated by category, you could have pre-chosen proxies
> for different categories of votes.
>  
> Of course, in addition, you could designate a special proxy (or a
> special ranking of proxies) for any particular vote too.

We found it simpler to begin there, with the assumption that the voter
would cast a separate vote on every issue.  This is the general case
for us.  Category voting then becomes the special case; or actually
cases, because we allow any number of category schemes to be layered
atop the simple general system.

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/


Mike Ossipoff wrote:
> Kathy--
>  
> You wrote:
>  
>  
> Why not make the idea better yet? Allow all voters to select a
> different representative for each issue of interest to the voter, so
> that one rep might be tasked to vote on environmental issues, another
> on education issues, and perhaps another on foreign trade treaty
> issues or on judicial appointments.... A voter could simply select a
> person to vote on all issues, or select separate persons for different
> issues. 
>  
> [endquote]
>  
> Absolutely. I don't remember if that was in my earlier proposal, but of course
> it should be. 
>  
> One would have a pre-chosen default proxy designation, as I described, but one would also be
> able to designate a proxy on any particular vote.
>  
> And a proxy needn't be a political figure, party leader, candidate, or anyone special. 
> One's proxy could be _anyone_ whom one wants to vote for hir. (As designated for a particular
> issue-category, or a particular vote, or as pre-chosen default proxy). 
> It could be a friend, family member, or any kind of public figure or 
> advocate, etc.
>  
> The Proxy Direct Democracy that I proposed could be voted by telephone or Internet.
>  
> As I mentioned, the voter would have an anonymous voter ID number.
>  
> That would make voting by telephone or website feasible.
>  
> Here's one way that the voter could get that ID number:
>  
> The person intending to register to vote writes a random 20 digit number on a piece
> of paper, and folds the paper. In the registration office, s/he drops it into a drum
> of other people's similarly-folded, identical-looking, voter ID number slips, and turns the drum, to obscure which paper
> s/he dropped in.
>  
> That number now is an anonymous voter ID number. A voter can use it to vote by phone, or at
> a website. And, additionally, of course, the voter can designate a default proxy, for any vote in
> which that voter doesn't take part.
>  
>  
> As You suggested, you could designate a different proxy for various kinds of issues. But 
> there could be different opinions on which issues are in which categories, unless vote issues are
> specifically designated by categories. For that reason, it might be necessary to designate such
> special proxies at the time of voting. But maybe not: Maybe, if vote issues are officially-designated by
> category, you could have pre-chosen proxies for different categories of votes.
>  
> Of course, in addition, you could designate a special proxy (or a special ranking of proxies) for
> any particular vote too.
>  
> So you can vote only on issues that interest you and that you're informed on, confident that
> you've designated someone else to vote on the others for you.
>  
> Mike Ossipoff
>  
>  
> guess a potential problem with this is that some issues
> overlap and Congress would have to stop the horsetrading process of
> throwing dozens of unrelated things into the same bill.