Dear Mike (and Kathy), Mike wrote: > And a proxy needn't be a political figure, party leader, candidate, > or anyone special. One's proxy could be _anyone_ whom one wants to > vote for hir. (As designated for a particular issue-category, or a > particular vote, or as pre-chosen default proxy). It could be a > friend, family member, or any kind of public figure or advocate, > etc.
I see such flexibility as a step toward the more general facility of giving the elector hir own ballot to do with as s/he pleases. In that sense, proxy voting is a partial solution to the problems described here in my thesis, which I trace precisely to the lack of such a facility: http://zelea.com/project/autonomy/a/fau/fau.xht I do technical work with proxy voting myself for project Votorola. See the figure caption at bottom for links to the voting theory: http://zelea.com/project/votorola/home.xht > As You [Kathy] suggested, you could designate a different proxy for > various kinds of issues. But there could be different opinions on > which issues are in which categories, unless vote issues are > specifically designated by categories. For that reason, it might be > necessary to designate such special proxies at the time of > voting. But maybe not: Maybe, if vote issues are > officially-designated by category, you could have pre-chosen proxies > for different categories of votes. > > Of course, in addition, you could designate a special proxy (or a > special ranking of proxies) for any particular vote too. We found it simpler to begin there, with the assumption that the voter would cast a separate vote on every issue. This is the general case for us. Category voting then becomes the special case; or actually cases, because we allow any number of category schemes to be layered atop the simple general system. -- Michael Allan Toronto, +1 416-699-9528 http://zelea.com/ Mike Ossipoff wrote: > Kathy-- > > You wrote: > > > Why not make the idea better yet? Allow all voters to select a > different representative for each issue of interest to the voter, so > that one rep might be tasked to vote on environmental issues, another > on education issues, and perhaps another on foreign trade treaty > issues or on judicial appointments.... A voter could simply select a > person to vote on all issues, or select separate persons for different > issues. > > [endquote] > > Absolutely. I don't remember if that was in my earlier proposal, but of course > it should be. > > One would have a pre-chosen default proxy designation, as I described, but > one would also be > able to designate a proxy on any particular vote. > > And a proxy needn't be a political figure, party leader, candidate, or anyone > special. > One's proxy could be _anyone_ whom one wants to vote for hir. (As designated > for a particular > issue-category, or a particular vote, or as pre-chosen default proxy). > It could be a friend, family member, or any kind of public figure or > advocate, etc. > > The Proxy Direct Democracy that I proposed could be voted by telephone or > Internet. > > As I mentioned, the voter would have an anonymous voter ID number. > > That would make voting by telephone or website feasible. > > Here's one way that the voter could get that ID number: > > The person intending to register to vote writes a random 20 digit number on a > piece > of paper, and folds the paper. In the registration office, s/he drops it into > a drum > of other people's similarly-folded, identical-looking, voter ID number slips, > and turns the drum, to obscure which paper > s/he dropped in. > > That number now is an anonymous voter ID number. A voter can use it to vote > by phone, or at > a website. And, additionally, of course, the voter can designate a default > proxy, for any vote in > which that voter doesn't take part. > > > As You suggested, you could designate a different proxy for various kinds of > issues. But > there could be different opinions on which issues are in which categories, > unless vote issues are > specifically designated by categories. For that reason, it might be necessary > to designate such > special proxies at the time of voting. But maybe not: Maybe, if vote issues > are officially-designated by > category, you could have pre-chosen proxies for different categories of votes. > > Of course, in addition, you could designate a special proxy (or a special > ranking of proxies) for > any particular vote too. > > So you can vote only on issues that interest you and that you're informed on, > confident that > you've designated someone else to vote on the others for you. > > Mike Ossipoff > > > guess a potential problem with this is that some issues > overlap and Congress would have to stop the horsetrading process of > throwing dozens of unrelated things into the same bill. > ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
