I notice there aren't any takers on joining a short "white paper", written to generate press attention. I doubt that the press would read the report (do they ever?) but it needs to exist before we can issue press releases. I still think a well-argued proposal for election reform by a group of scientists who know how to sell their ideas could get some attention.
In the past couple years research on voting machines at MIT and Caltech has gotten some coverage. Normally the engineers building those machines are about as obscure as the people who design mousetraps. However, right now this topic has some appeal. Let's not let it go to waste. I volunteer to research Eastern European elections, on the condition that I get volunteers for the other sections: 1. Abstract 2. Advantages of Approval over plurality and IRV 3. Australia 4. Prospects for reform: States where voters can bring about local and state-wide ballot measures, states where election laws are at least partially local (easier for grass-roots efforts), and how many state and federal races may have been influenced by a third party in 2000 (even just the number of such races where nobody had a majority is OK). Any takers? Alex
