THE CENTER FOR VOTING & DEMOCRACY has a question and answer page at http://www.igc.org/cvd/introduction/q_and_a.htm CVD is now mentioning 3 methods for single seat offices----- ---------------- What About The President? We Can't Divide Up The Presidency, Can We? No, we can't. Single seat offices like the president, governor, mayor or district representatives can't be elected with proportional representation. However, there are much better ways for electing them than what we use today, ways that guarantee that the winner will be supported by a majority of voters: Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) -- related to choice voting, because like choice voting the voter simply ranks candidates in an order of preference (ex. 1. Perot 2. Clinton 3. Dole). The candidate with the least number of first place votes is eliminated, and their votes are "transferred" to their 2nd choice until a candidate has a majority. Also called majority preference voting or the alternative vote. Approval -- Voters are allowed to vote for all candidates they approve. For example, Bush-Yes Perot-No Clinton-Yes. The candidate with the highest number of "yes" votes wins. Click here for a more complete explanation. [Link to http://bcn.boulder.co.us/government/approvalvote/center.html Approval Voting Home Page] Condorcet's Method -- Like preference voting and majority preference voting, the voter simply ranks candidates in an order of preference (ex. 1. Perot 2. Clinton 3. Bush). Unlike majority preference voting though, several two-way races are simulated using the ballots, determining who would win a Perot/Clinton race, who would win a Perot/Bush race, and who would win a Bush/Clinton race. The one who wins all of the pairwise elections wins. Click here for a more detailed explanation. [Link to http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/politics/condorcet.html Condorcet's Method] All of these methods give voters a greater voice in how their vote is used, and alleviate the "lesser-of-two-evils" problem for voters. Our current winner-take-all system promotes candidates who blame all of our problems on those who would never vote for them, and punishes candidates who come up with pragmatic, middle-ground solutions.
