Seems to me Fred is wandering on this one.
Our declaration gets big enough without tackling:
. Who gets to be a candidate.
. Who gets to be a voter.
I know New York law gets plenty of complexity while tackling these two
- much of it in trying to be fair and reasonable while getting it all
done in a reasonable number of days.
"party nomination" relates to primary,, "independent nomination"
relates to independence ignoring party, and "designating petition"
relates to primary - are all used in our law on this.
Dave Ketchum
On Sep 2, 2011, at 4:25 PM, Fred Gohlke wrote:
Good Afternoon, Mr. Fobes
re: "I think that the listed benefits (of election-method reform)
cover most of your "participation" principle ..."
The declaration presumes the right of political parties to select
the candidates for public office, thereby preventing meaningful
participation by the public.
Over two hundred years experience with party politics (should) have
taught us that political parties transcend the will of the people.
Parties are important for the principals: the party leaders,
contributors, candidates and elected officials, but the significance
diminishes rapidly as the distance from the center of power grows.
Most people are on the periphery, remote from the center of power.
As outsiders, they have little incentive to participate in the
political process. The flaws in party politics are disastrous and
we ought not blind ourselves to the political causes of the
devastation we're enduring, right now.
If the only purpose of the declaration is to break the hold of
plurality it may be effective, but it offers no roadmap for those
countries seeking an electoral method that gives their people
meaningful participation in the political process.
Fred Gohlke
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