I don't know if this was sent to the right address, and so I'm sending it again. My apologies if it posts twice:
California has made an astounding, bold experiment. They've taken away the official status of parties in California's state and congressional elections. State-sponsored party primaries don't make any sense. All of the political parties opposed Runoff, because it takes away their official status. Additionally, the fact that the California voters have adopted a new voting system for state and congressional elections is important for its own sake. It shows that people are open to change in the voting system. People everywhere will be a little more receptive now, to proposals for new voting systems. Change has been shown to be possible and feasible. I'm not saying that Runoff is any good. So what?--Neither is Plurality. The small parties object that their ballot status was the only thing keeping them visible. Yeah, but where did it ever get them? One percent? With the media's help, of course the Republocrats can probably continue to dominate in Runoff. I suppose progressives will still feel a need to vote Democrat, so that the Democrat candidates won't be shut out of the runoff. So, in that way, nothing will change. But now the Democrats will find out what the split-vote problem is like. Beautiful ! The Democrats will be divided something like the way the progressives have been.Their best vote totals might no longer exceed those of the non-Republocrats by as much as they have been. In something as stagnant as our politics here, any shuffle or shake-up, such as California's new Runoff system, is a good thing. All the more so, because it encourages more change, and gives precedent, respectability and plausibility to change proposals. Mike Ossipoff ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
