You make some good points Andy-
Some Postal Service managers have bought this argument before and some just don't get it. Some are downright obstructionist. There is a letter carrier in the 5th district who was elected a national convention delegate in absentia- his supervisor wouldn't let him have saturday afternoon off for the convention.As for the Hatch Act affecting your ability, you are correct, unless you're in charge of the budget and policy aspects of the organization.
Correct- absentee ballots could be counted right along with regular ballots.Convention balloting is a form of IRV already, but I take it you're suggesting that access for absentee delegates would be another way.
One of the benefits of IRV is that if an endorsement does not occur after counting the voters 1st choices, further counts tallying their 2nd, 3rd, etc. choices would probably result in an endorsement.Problem: you have no idea after the first ballot who will and will not survive the drop-offs and who get the necessary percentages to advance to the next ballot without being there.
I pretty much agree- if a candidate cannot get 60% of the votes even after totalling 2nd, 3rd, etc. choice votes it's probably best to make no endorsement.IRV only works when the outcomes would be predictable by a single ballot cast. Multiple ballots throws the system into a hat.
The Greens found themselves in this situation in the balloting for U.S. Senate endorsement this year. Even after counting 2nd and 3rd choice votes no candidate or the no endorsement option had garnered the 60% needed for endorsement. They went on to a second ballot which endorsed a candidate they later disowned. The Greens would have been better off settling for no endorsement after the 1st ballot.
Another option the Greens used to good effect is the use of proxies, which allowed a person who could not attend the convention to hand their vote to a like minded fellow delegate,
BTW, having been disenfranchised by the DFL I may be attending another party's 3rd Ward endorsing convention. As an observer only, for the benefit of anyone building a case to throw me out of the DFL...
Dyna Sluyter, Another disenfranchised DFLer in Hawthorne
Andy Driscoll Saint Paul -------- Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right. --Mahatma GandhiFrom: dyna <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 01:04:17 -0600 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Mpls] 3rd ward race update At work today I duly submitted a form PS-3971, requesting an hour or two of unpaid leave to represent my precinct at the 3rd ward convention a week from Monday evening. Attached was a copy of the call, and I made reference to the "right to participate in political activity under the Hatch Act". This is my interpretation of the act, and management has a quite different one. This argument worked once before, so what the heck... With each day I become more convinced that the Northsiders in the 3rd need to make a stand in this election. We pay taxes just like the rest of the city, but in return receive substandard city services. The Northside delegates need to be ready to do whatever it takes to make sure our next council member doesn't forget us. Blocking an endorsement is not out of the question. The latest edition of North News covered Biernat's resignation and announced the 4 parties endorsing conventions. The Green, Independence, and Republican parties will hold their conventions on the weekend so the maximum number of delegates may attend. Meanwhile, the DFL still insists on disenfranchising many working delegates bu holding their convention early on a weeknight. I> am not the only delegate potentially disenfranchised by this bit of > DFL scheduling arrogance- another delegate in my precinct puts in > long hours working for a railroad and may not get off work in time tomake the convention. These small elections are excellent opportunities for parties to experiment with new ideas. So why isn't the DFL trying Instant Runoff Voting with absentee ballots in this endorsement process? Is the DFL just doing things the customary way, or are some DFLers trying to keep some delegates from voting? peace, Dyna Sluyter, disenfrachised in Hawthorne -- _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls_______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
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