The Existentialist Cowboy: alternative voting methods

Showing posts with label alternative voting methods. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Mitt Romney's Not So Subtle Attack on the Rights of All Americans to Vote

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

Today --the rights of all people of any color to vote are still under threat by ILK like Mitt Romney who has taken up the GOP 'code word' for BIGOTRY ---VOTER FRAUD. There are very few if ANY instances of voter fraud but the CROOKED EFFORTS of the GOP to keep anyone not of the 'white' race, indeed, anyone not a GOPPER from voting. I call GOP efforts to stop ballot recounts in Florida 'voter fraud'.

I call the disingenusous decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, halting the recounts, by the name 'voter fraud'. Though it was phony votes that were the fraud --NOT real voters of any sort or ethnic origin whose votes were targeted by the GOP and the 'high' court. I would not be surprised to learn that the meme 'voter fraud' was cooked up by an Orwellian political consulting firm and its paid 'focus group' who 'tested' it.

Some real history about how it was a Demoratic President who worked to ensure the rights of ALL voters to vote. It was --not surprisingly --a staunch Republican senator from South Carolina, a confirmed segregationist who filibustered and blocked passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 that had been written by then Senate Majority Leader, Lyndon Johnson. There were some alterations to the bill. That was to be expected. Nevertheless, the bill passed and would be signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower. It made the history that Mitt Romney hopes to re-write or erase.

The bill established the Civil Rights Commission and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Both agencies would ensure that the voting rights and civil rights of African Americans and all Americans wiould be enforced.

Having already made history, in April of 1960, LBJ was 'playing catch up' to an aggressive Kennedy machine. Later, journalist Howard B. Woods, editor of a black newspaper called the St. Louis Argus would recall those times in Passage of Power, a biographical series on the life and times of Johnson:

The Senator, tie-less and in shirtsleeves, was eating cookies and drinking a tall, and stiff, Scotch, but when Woods ask him about the civil rights bill "which seems to please no one," saying, "Senator, the bill, as it was finally passed, was admittedly watered down," Johnson forgot about the cookies and the Scotch, and leaned forward across the table, looking Woods "straight in the eye" in a way the editor found quite memorable.
"When we say every man has a right to vote, that is not watered down," Lyndon Johnson said." The important thing in this country is whether or not a man can participate in the management of his government. When this is possible, he can decide that I'm no good." George Reedy slipped into the seat next to Woods, but Johnson didn't need Reedy now. "Civil rights are a matter of human dignity," he said.
"It's outrageous that all people do not have the dignity to which they are entitled. But we can't legislate human dignity -- we can legislative to give a man a vote and a voice in in his own government. Then with his vote and his voice he is equipped with a very potent weapon to guarantee his own dignity." [Emphasis added.]
-Howard B. Woods, Passage of Power

Sunday, July 31, 2011

A Case for Ending the Current Method by Which Presidents are 'Selected'

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

The office of President is connected to the electorate 'metaphorically' but not in fact. The very method by which the President is elected is complicated by party machines, primaries, state election procedures and most notably an antiquated and completely useless 'Electoral College'.

As long as there is an 'electoral college', 'third parties' are reduced to playing 'spoiler'; 'states' are given powers they should not have. The 'President' is supposed to represent ALL the people but he/she is, in fact, elected by states and/or state party machines. And those, in turn, are but pawns of big contributors, organized lobbies and special interests.

The only viable alternative is to end the primaries; replace them with a single national popular election defined and decided by an 'instant runoff'. A benefit of this is that free of 'party' machinations, candidates must run on issues. The 'President' of the United States (in theory, at least) must represent all of the people of the United States. A 'direct election' can make a truth of this fiction.

Then --why is the 'President' elected by 'states'?

The following criteria are listed in [an] LWV study:
Ensure majority rule. Most major political races currently can be won with only a plurality.
Encourage minority representation, where minority is defined by either party or cultural
affiliation.
Encourage fair gender representation.
Produce fair and accurate representation of diverse political views in legislatures.
Increase voter participation.
Encourage geographical representation.
Encourage “sincere” voting, as opposed to “strategic” voting.
Maximize effective votes/minimize “wasted” votes.
Provide a reasonable range of voter choice.
Prevent fraud and political manipulation.
Encourage competitive elections
--League of Women Voters in Oregon, Criteria for Evaluating Election Systems, Election Methods: Review of Alternatives and Oregon, Proposals, Executive Summary

There are many ways to arrive at the 'people's choice following a national popular election. The Borda count, for example, is a single-winner election method. Voters are given a list of candidates representing every party fielding a candidate. The voter simply RANKS the candidates in the order of their preference. Their favorite, for example, is 'number one', etc.

Thus the Borda count determines a winner by giving each candidate the number of points which correspond to his/her rank as 'marked' by each voter. Nothing could be simpler: the winning candidate is the one with the most points.

The Borda count is but one system. There are competing 'range' and/or preference systems. All of them, however, must meet certain criteria if we are to achieve the goals of any new proposal.

Everyone's vote must 'equal' everyone's else's vote, i.,e no system should result in any vote or sub-set of votes having more 'weight' statistically than any other vote. One man (person), one vote must become more than mere slogan. It is possible that it be made a fact!

What does this mean to voters? Simplistically, a vote in rural Arizona must --and can -- carry as much 'weight' as a vote in Houston's very, very posh and elite 'River Oaks'; a vote in Harlem must --and can -- carry the same weight as a vote in Minnesota or a vote in any other place, city, neighborhood or enclave in these United States. The President is --after all --said to be elected by popular vote. But that has not been the case in fact and practice. The biggest offender is the 'Electoral College'. Thanks to the electoral college, the value of individual votes in small states are not worth much.

Another benefit is that party machinations may be, can be minimized. Any party can 'elect' within its rank any candidate it desires. Let the parties do what they want within their ranks --as long as its legal. But --as more parties are sure to spring up --more points of view will be represented. The obvious benefit is that voters are no longer reduced to voting between two shades of gray, between frick or frack, between GOP or GOP-LITE. The people will at last been given a choice. Democracy will have at last come to the United States.

The greatest benefit of all may be that the cost of elections will decline. Candidates must address issues over postures and strategies. Voters will themselves sense that --at last --their vote is actually counting for something, that it is not merely lost amid the electoral college and/or the machinations of increasingly complicated and completely out-of-touch parties, primaries and machines.

Media Conglomerates, Mergers, Concentration of Ownership, Global Issues, Updated: January 02, 2009