Agree on one thing? We could begin with IRV - Instand Runoff Voting. 1. There is only one version of IRV - not many to dispute over
2. All wards remain; their boundaries unchanged; the pothole fixer is still in your ward, all the familiar homey stuff. 3. What's new: you vote 1-2-3 for your councilperson, mayor, etc. since you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by voting 1 for whoever you most like (even if you figure she will not win), in order to show everyone how strong YOUR point of view is. The tallies afterward will show that the RP got 25%, the GP 26%, the DFL 49% - or whatever - and then "pragmatic" forces will move in the direction of the vote. 4. IRV is much less of a change than PR. It is a "bite-size" introduction to 1-2-3 voting. I advocate FIRST going for this one ALL BY ITSELF without PR attached (which killed it last time). Even this is will be a battle against the contented powers that be that are not responding to citizen needs. --David Shove Roseville PS The DFL Leg is on record vote, a few years back, rejecting fusion voting, which would have had some of the features of IRV. There were 7 RP votes for it, 7 DP votes for it -- and all the others against. Then the Leg relentlessly pursued it down with as many limits as it could come up with, and had as I recall to be taken to court to remove some of them - before it died a Leg-inflicted death. On Wed, 24 Nov 2004, David Weinlick wrote: > On Wednesday, November 24, 2004, at 02:10 AM, David Shove suggested > that the DFL is the barrier to enacting some alternative form of voting: > > > Be prepared for DFL hacks jumping up and down, going ballistic, > > frothing > > at the mouth, predicting the end of the world, etc. But we and they > > know > > they just want to keep the seats that they in effect have stolen from > > you. > > > > Ironically, it was the conservative MCCL who quashed a recent attempt > to try alternative voting in Roseville. It's not the DFL who is > running a campaign for the status quo. > > As for the situation within Minneapolis, you are right that any group > in power will be somewhat reluctant to take action that limits that > power. That does not mean that DFLers are anti-PR or anti-IRV, or > anything of the sort. There are Minneapolis citizens of all political > flavors who favor alternative voting systems. The trouble is that so > many different possible alternatives exist that it is difficult to get > people to coalesce around a specific alternative. > > One way of implementing such reform would be to lobby the City Council. > If all 13 members approve a change in the city charter, we can have > alternative voting immediately. Ironically, if your proposed PR > proposal were enacted, it might be much more difficult to get 13 > council members to agree on any one item. > > Before we see change here in Minneapolis, we're going to have to rally > those in favor of alternatives behind one specific alternative--if the > people most interested in seeing change can't agree on how to change, > we'll never see it. > > David Weinlick > Armatage > > 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
