At 01:05 PM 12/17/2007, Kevin Venzke wrote: >Well, selecting someone to fill a role whose sole function is to vote for a >president... If the voters already have an opinion on the issue then >there's nothing to offer them except to promise to vote the way they want >on the main issue.
How about "If the vote is relevant, I'll vote for Ralph Nader. Otherwise I'll vote for Al Gore; and if that is not relevant, I'll use my discretion"? Of course, if there are enough electors like this, how would they know what is relevant? Nevertheless, we should be so luck as to have that problem. Presumably, in nearly all situations, they'd know; I'd assume that Nader electors would be in communication with each other..... In a real Asset system, one would not have the single-ballot fixed election of the present implementation of the U.S. electoral college. Rather, there would be a requirement of a majority for single-winner elections, it would be standard deliberative process, I'd assume (that is, balloting continues until there is a majority vote for a result). Put approval voting in there and the whole process could be much faster (with, perhaps, a final ratification required, Yes/No on the result, which solves possible strategic voting problems). >The best solution, it seems to me, is to have the decision be made by >people who were elected for some other primary responsibility. For example, >have all the elected mayors (pretending for a moment that all cities have >elected mayors), or someone hand-picked by each mayor, serve also as >delegates. I don't think this would affect races for mayor that much, >especially if they are elected before it's clear who is running for >president. Well, this is the original college concept. The *real* electors were the members of the state legislatures. Problem is, majority decision in that case leads to anomalies, as we all know. All or nothing. I prefer pure electoral choice. What isn't realized by many who come upon this asset voting concept is that voters really could effectively vote for *anyone* who is willing to serve (I'd require registration for practical reasons, perhaps "candidates" would be assigned a number (or a specific name to use so that it is unique) and there would be a directory available at the polling place as well as elsewhere. The simplest system, of course, is to have the candidates serve as electors. But that requires large-scale choice of electors, the very problem that really should be avoided. ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
