[EM] Approval voting and incumbents

[Richard Fobes]

On 11/13/2012 3:29 AM, aGREATER.US wrote:
> Incumbents have a huge unfair advantage in that corporations
 > (including unions) pour money into their reelection campaigns.
 > ...

Easily overlooked is the fact that corporations elect their board 
members using single-mark ballots, and labor-union members use 
single-mark ballots to elect their union leaders.

Keeping in mind the unfairness of elections that use single-mark 
ballots, the consequence is that corporations are not under the control 
of shareholders, and labor unions are not under the control of voting 
labor-union members.

As a consequence, the Republican party is not controlled by individual 
investors, and the Democratic Party is not controlled by labor-union 
workers.

Instead, both parties are controlled by the biggest campaign 
contributors using lots of money that was given to them by people who 
are not well-represented by those "elected" corporate/union leaders.

If better ballots and better counting methods were used in corporate 
board-member elections and labor-union-leader elections, the Republican 
and Democratic parties would come closer to representing the majority of 
voters (even without any improvements in governmental elections).

Richard Fobes