2013/7/26 Peter Gustafsson <mining...@hotmail.com> > from: jameson.qu...@gmail.com > Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:54:09 -0600 > To: election-methods@lists.electorama.com; > electionscie...@googlegroups.com > Subject: [EM] "Top 2+1 Approval" primaries > Here's a simple proposal for a top-two-like mechanism for primaries, > copied from an answer of mine on Quora: > The simplest good solution would be "Top 2+1 approval". That is: > a primary using approval voting > the top two advance to the general election, plus the top vote-getter > outside that party if they're both from the same party > then a general election using approval voting. > SNIP > > Note that, although this system is built to allow only two parties in the > general election, that does not mean it would perpetuate two-party > domination. A leftist district could easily have Democrat(s) and Green in > the general, and a conservative district could easily have Republican(s) > and Libertarian. And if the "minor" party actually had more support, they > would go on to win the seat. > > Certainly you could propose complex systems that could be better than this > proposal in some ways. For instance, you could use a proportional > representation system such as Bucklin Transferrable Voting (BTV) for the > first round. But this proposal is a simple balance of the requirements: > nonpartisan voting, a balance of candidates and parties in the general > election, yet focused attention on a few strong candidates. > ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for > list info > ----------- > > Jameson: > Your Quora post was very well put, considerably better than anything that > I have put together. That said: > > In it, you mention Gerrymandering and Duverger pathologies.But what will > this 2+1 system do to break that? From my cursory glance, it appears that > if the system would be enacted you would get these kind of districts: > 1. Super-right electorate: no dems in the top-3, general election between > 2 GOP and one libertarian/constitution party/whatever. GOP wins most of > those districts. > 2. 1. Super-left electorate: no GOP in the top-3, general election between > 2 dem and one Green/workers party/whatever. Dem wins most of those > districts. > 3. Competitive district: One GOP, one Dem candidate goes to the general > election. Voters who prefer left-of-Dem, or right-of-GOP, > parties/candidates will vote Dem/GOP according to the "least of evils" > thinking, *even* if that is faulty thinking in this case. Meanwhile, voters > favoring 3rd party candidates that are politically situated between the two > big parties will find that their party experiences massive center squeeze. > > As I see it, this would result in a Congress that has 2 dominant parties, > plus a smattering of "extremists" on both sides. Those 3rd and 4th party > representatives would come from areas which are well out of the country > norm, so it would be easy for the big parties to stick it to those places. > No pork for you, if you vote small party! The "extremists" would have very > few tactical options - mostly they would be forced to vote with the big > party closest to them, lest they alienate their voter base. > > Then, when districts are up for redrawing, they would be Gerrymandered out > of existence. If a district is held by a Green, the GOP will know that they > have no chance of winning it, but they would probably be pleased if the Dem > took it - lesser of evils thinking, but from the other direction. The Dem´s > OTOH, would see such a district as a big juicy target, since many of its > voters have previously voted Dem and consider the Dems as 2nd best > alternative. A Little bit of border redrawing between that district and an > adjoining district that is also Dem but has less core support for the > Greens, and the Dem party has 2 districts instead of one. Likewise on the > other side of the political spectrum. > > Yours, > > Peter Gustafsson
Democrats would rather have 2 D's than 1 G, but Republicans would rather have 1R 1G. Still, in the long run, anything that's not PR is not a full solution to gerrymandering. I recognize that, but I think my proposal is still a step forward.
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