Following are some general suggestions on how to become politically active, plus some specific suggestions related to election reform.
* Peter McWilliams devotes a chapter of his book "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in Our Free Country" to political activism. That chapter can be read at http://www.drugsense.org/mcwilliams/www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/aint/5070 .htm . (The book is available on the shelves of Barnes & Noble for $9.95. Highly recommended to Libertarians and Greens.) * There is a whole page full of "Writer's Resources" and other activism links at http://www.mapinc.org/resource/ . I have read and recommend "Three Tips For Letter Writers" and "Tips for Getting Letters to the Editor Published." * Volunteer to help with the next election. Staff the polling places, check people's names against the registered voter list, count ballots, etc. I haven't done this (yet), but it seems like a good way to meet other people who might have an interest in voting reform. It would also be an opportunity to monitor the security arrangements, and make sure that the votes from your precinct make it into the official count. * It may be helpful to contact some multi-issue activist groups such as League of Women Voters (http://www.lwv.org/) or Common Cause (http://www.commoncause.org/) -- not to mention your favorite political party and related groups. The sponsor of the Maine IRV bill got the idea from a conference of Northeast Action (http://www.neaction.org). * If you would like to improve your powers of persuasion, I highly recommend joining and participating in Toastmasters. Toastmasters is an organization dedicated to helping its members improve their speaking and leadership skills. I have found that preparing and delivering a speech helps me clarify my ideas about a topic. I have delivered several speeches to my Toastmasters clubs as preparation for speaking to a committee of my state legislature, and for speaking to the staff of my US representative. In both cases (committee and staff), the visits went off well. The practice speeches helped me learn the material, memorize the points I wanted to make, develop confidence and overcome nervousness. You can find a Toastmasters club near you by checking http://www.toastmasters.org/find/default_new.asp . Guests are always welcome at the public clubs - just show up at the indicated time and place. * Look for opportunities to establish Approval voting in the organizations you are involved with. For example, I delivered speeches on "Alternative Voting Methods" to both of my Toastmasters clubs, and then got both clubs to adopt Approval Voting for choosing Best Speaker, Best Evaluator and Best Topic Speaker in the regular meetings. (We have been using Approval for a month or two with no problems. A couple years ago (before I knew about Approval) I tried to use IRV in one Toastmasters meeting and immediately encountered problems - I didn't know how to resolve ties. With Approval, anyone can count the ballots. With IRV, it takes some training and practice!) Another example: I participated in the formation of an association of consulting engineers. No one else had any ideas about how to conduct the voting for selecting board members, so I proposed Approval voting, and the proposal was adopted. Approval voting may not be the theoretically best method to use for a multiple winner election, and, due to a misunderstanding, the voting instructions were "choose up to five candidates" from the seven candidates running. Despite those problems, people seemed to be satisfied with the results of the election. Another example: If you are part of a group of people deciding where to go for lunch, use Approval Voting to decide. (If you are in a meeting and want to give people more options, consider using the "-1, 0, 1" version of Cardinal Ratings voting.) Yet another example: IRV is spreading into numerous college student organizations. (Student Approvalists, where are you? Get busy! :-) * Look for ways to get your favorite voting method established in the public consciousness. For example, ask web sites that conduct polls to use Approval voting. Approval has the advantage that the results are very easy to report real-time in a form that can be readily understood by anyone. I hope these suggestions will be of some use. Cheers, - Jan ---- For more information about this list (subscribe, unsubscribe, FAQ, etc), please see http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/em
