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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Good afternoon Fred:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>You are championing a very important subject and I certainly enjoy your posts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Gohlke: Your post does not seem to address the issue of non-partisans, yet they<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> are, by far, the majority of the electorate (whether or not they<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> actually vote).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>I think you missed the point of the post. If you note that the M (the non-partisans candidate) wins in every one of my examples (with a different voting method). If you change the voting method parties will be weaker and non-partisan candidates will be stronger.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>I don’t believe that non-partisans are a majority of the register votes, and even a smaller percent of the voters. A Gallup poll in 2010 said that </span><span lang=EN style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>38% of Americans identified themselves as independents. There is a big difference between an independent and a non-partisan. A large number of those saying they are independent are registered in one of the major parties. If you have a Republican dominated state and you are not a registered Republican you can’t vote in the primary and you have no influence on the election, which I think is one of your (and my) major gripes. If you are Democrat in a Republican state you also have no influence on the election. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Hoffard: "If you assume there are no Parties and we have the same<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> people running for office you get the same results."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Gohlke: I don't understand why, if there are no parties, it is proper to assume<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNoSpacing> 'we have the same people running for office'. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNoSpacing><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNoSpacing>I said “Assume we have the same people running” and we change the voting method we get a different result, the M (non-partisan) wins the election. Of course if we do not have any parties we may get different candidates. But the point is by changing the voting method and ever with a Liberal (L) and a Conservative (C) candidate running we could still have a moderate (M) candidate winning. Also ever without parties under a first-past-the-pole system (with an L, M, and a C) the L or the C would win the election. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNoSpacing><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNoSpacing>Don Hoffard<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>