At lunch I discussed "VOTER CHOICE" with a co-worker. He had doubts. When I said "PRO-VOTER REFORM" he said that was good. Who could be ANTI-VOTER????
Re: E. Europe. OK, I see your point clearly. Perhaps we could stick to SF and Vermont as examples of reform? Maybe it will seem to thin. Re: "breaking the duopoly" Actually, one could argue that Approval will ENTRENCH the duopoly, just let the 10% who want to mention a third party do so. In this sense of Approval Voting, you might see Democrats getting a sense of their total Green vs. Labor support, and Republicans getting an idea whether it's Libertarians or Christians who support them. [as an aside, how does Approval handle multiple endorsements? Say, I'm Democratic Line in New York county and Green Line in upstate. It's trivial?] Do not say that there is no reason to go to Approval UNLESS you support third parties, please :) re: "hyper-focused report on a specific reform has a much better chance of garnering press attention." As long as it doesn't get "hyper-technical," sure. <glances in Ossipoff's direction> Give the reporter some URLs at least, so they can look into things further if it interests them, for all angles, not just history. RE: "HAGER in 2002" It's not a job. It's politics. I'm, for most practical purposes, the anti-Libertarian. Gosh, 'those people' really get my goat. Privatizing the Post Office indeed! Hmmph. Grumble. ANYTHING the Government can do the Private Sector can do better? It's malarkey! I exaggerate. I'd rather have Ron Paul (R-TX) on the opposite side of the aisle than most Republicans, but only because I'd consider him the rational counter-argument, not because, for the most part, I agree with him about anything. Sorry if I've offended anyone. :) Re: 2000 examples versus not I understand. Other people would understand. Is there any way you can say that in say "1900-2000 X% of all races would have been effected" I know that's a lot tougher to study, but it would have more impact, and would be less threatening to the status quo. -----Original Message----- From: Alex Small [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, April 08, 2002 3:16 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re:[EM] Action Josh wrote: >2. I really like the name "VOTER CHOICE". Could we vote on it? :) Substitute "failed to give voters more meaningful choices" with "failed to break the duopoly" and I think we have a better way to approach Australia. >4. I WOULD think, without any clear reason, that we want to avoid parallels >with Eastern Europe One natural question people will have is "Nice idea, but has anybody actually tried this?" Admittedly, I don't want to say "Why, yes. In <name of country> the Communist, Fascist, and Isolationist parties were all competitive in the 1999 elections, and all won offices just prior to the coup." However, I wouldn't mind saying "Several Eastern European countries have seen multiple competitive parties in single-winner races." >5. RE: Australia's IRV and "Breaking the duopoly"... I don't like the >Duopoly, you don't like it, but the goal is not to break it. The goal is >to enhance voter choice. True, but there's no reason to abandon plurality unless you want more than 2 _competitive_ options. I'm up for massaging the wording, saying "voter choice" instead of "more parties." We shouldn't explicitly condemen the Republicrats, but we can't escape the fact that we're advocating the potential downfall of the duopoly. We can say "In other countries voters have a wide range of choices, but in places where you only get one vote only two choices are usually competitive." >6. I think a good paper will include lots of historical stuff in one two >page section. I may just have an over-fondness for this topic. I do think >the "Hamilton's Math Sucked" and the "National Academy of Sciences answered >all doubts" aspects of the Apportionment story are relevant. I also think >they are interesting, which is a much more personal assessment. I'm proposing a project focused on implementing Approval Voting. I have my own list of pet topics of discussion, but I want the "report" to be a case specifically for our reform, not an intersting historical survey of election methods. A hyper-focused report on a specific reform has a much better chance of garnering press attention. >7. I can't endorse Hager. I admit that I really want to couple this Approval publicity drive with an endorsement of the only candidate (I know of) who favors our reform. There may be ways to work around this, mentioning Hager in the press release but not the report (assuming you contribute to it). The idea of the report is to try and get a newspaper story that begins "According to a new study..." since papers seem to like those. It may be possible to say "A group of scientists has released a report documenting the advantages of a proposed voting reform..." and "Some of the authors have banded together to support the candidacy of like-minded reformer Paul Hager..." If you don't mind answering, when you say "can't" do you have a government job that bars endorsing candidates (I've heard of such jobs) or do you oppose Hager's stances? I won't try to talk you into going against your conscience and/or employment contract. I'll only say that some list members who donated probably don't agree with all of his stances, but he's running for a single-duty office on a single-issue platform. In that context people from different ideologies can often work together without violating their consciences. Feel free to ignore that intrusive question. >8. I think we should not emphasize the way this method would have changed >races in ANY ANY ANY recent races. We should have the data on hand, but we >should not say "See, look, Gore would have won" I wouldn't say "Plurality stuck us with that idiot W!" I would say, however, that "In x% of state and federal races in 2000 a third party candidate likely tipped the balance. With approval voting, however..." Have I assuaged your concerns? Alex ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message is intended only for the personal and confidential use of the designated recipient(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. This communication is for information purposes only and should not be regarded as an offer to sell or as a solicitation of an offer to buy any financial product, an official confirmation of any transaction, or as an official statement of Lehman Brothers. 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