Wednesday, September 29, 2004

A push for voter reform.

A couple of days ago I went after a website called VotePair. They believe that they can win the majority of electoral votes for Kerry by a technique known as vote-swapping. While I completely disagree with their ideology behind trying to loophole the electoral college I can't find anything to say that what they are doing is illegal. In fact, the opposite is true. California, the state that injuncted Nader-Trader and other sites in 2000, is currently hearing a trial for damages incurred by the injunction. We shall see what happens in this case.

While I do not condone the last concept I do encourage something else I found on their site; Instant Runoff Voting or IRV comes off as a good idea to me. Australia and Ireland are already using this concept in three or more way elections. The way it works is to put in order your candidate preferences.

For example, Let's just say I'm a progressive (the new buzz word for liberal) and I would like to see Dean in the white house. My first choice would be Dean and my second choice would be Kerry. (Remember this is only hypothetical. Imagine this is Pusillanumous Wanker speaking.) If Kerry were to get 41% of the vote and Bush got 47% in first choices neither candidate would have accumulated the aquired the needed 51% for the win. You would then go to the second choice candidate list until one candidate had at least the required 51% needed votes. If you're still confused go to the site here. It provies real world examples of three way elections if they were to have taken place with IRV.

Bottom line, contact your congressperson and your senator and tell them to stop vote swapping if they can. If you have the time try and get them to push for IRV as well.

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