Since no else is commenting, I will. I think that IRV (Instant Runoff Voting) and PV (Proportional Voting) are two of the worst ideas to come down the road in a long time.
Simply put, IRV creates a system in which the candidate who receives the most votes may actually lose to a candidate who receives fewer votes but is a popular "second choice". PV effectively means that you vote for a political party not a person. As proposed in Minneapolis, it would also require all or some of the city council to be elected at-large. The system isn't broken. The majority of city council members are DFL because that is who the voters chose. Perhaps the Green Party or the Independence Party will prove viable long term. Republicans could win elections in the city but are dragged deep into the mud by a national and state party committed to wreaking havoc both here and abroad. The Minneapolis Republican leadership, like Lee Eklund, Carleton Crawford, and Connie Nompelis are good people all but when Grover Norquist and Ann Coulter represent the soul of your party . . . Jim Bernstein Fulton -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Shove Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 3:15 PM To: Leurquin, Ronald Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Mpls] GOP Caucuses I am an advocate of IRV and PR. On Mon, 22 Dec 2003, Leurquin, Ronald wrote: > Maybe the comments below form a good argument for proportional > representation and even instant runnoff elections. Perhaps they do. But look at it from the point of view of the DFL incumbent - which is what most of the council is. The present winner-take-all system has gotten them where they are. It puts up formidable obstacles to challengers - meaning once you're in, you're pretty much in for life. And if you leave after many terms, there's usually a nice corporate job to repay you for the public resources you've given it. So why would they want to change it? Of course we the public suffer, but what are we in the great scale of things compared to our honorable elected-for-life officials? As far as they're concerned, a "public servant" is a person in the public who serves them. There is an adage that power never surrenders power voluntarily. The only strategy I know of that works is to have another party that takes enough votes away from them in election after election that some of them lose their seats, the rest of them fear it, and PR and IRV are the only way to lessen their loss. Then they will fall all over themselves putting it in yesterday. I suggest that that other party is the Green Party. It's already bigger in Mpls than the GOP, and has Zimmermann, Johnson-Lee, and Young. Re-elect them, and elect a couple more Greens - and watch the DFL put in PR and IRV overnight. But any third party would do, so long as it makes incumbents lose. --David Shove Roseville for so long I have > personally felt that the better choices always got wiped out before the > final elections because they lacked charisma, money, or some other > reason that had nothing to do with thier actual ability to do the job > they were running for. It seems like the crap rises to the top way to > often ion our present system now. Ron Leurquin Nokomis east REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
