Tilting at the Ballot Box

Justin justin-cypherpunks at soze.net
Mon Aug 30 05:23:06 PDT 2004


On 2004-08-29T20:55:19-0700, Steve Schear wrote:
> I am not discussing presidential elections, this is another matter.

Fine.

> > Steve Schear wrote:
> >> The problem is that use of voting districts seems to have always resulted
> >> in gerrymandering in our political system.  A proportional system can
> >> eliminate these geopolitical distortions.
> >
> At 02:49 PM 8/27/2004, Justin wrote:
> >State and Federal House of Reps.  are proportional.  (Yeah, I know
> >Nebraska is unicameral, excuse the generalization).  What part of the
> >System isn't proportional other than most States' selection of
> >presidential electors?
> 
> The part that isn't proportional has to do with the very establishment of 
> 'voting districts' within the states that are the key to the two major 
> parties maintaining their electoral monopolies.

Oh, you want to eliminate voting districts.  I apologize for not reading
your intentions into your earlier comments.

Are States "geopolitical distortions" as well?  Are countries?

----

If you're going to propose an alternate system, please clearly identify
1) the voting pool, and 2) what they're voting for.  If the pool is
voting for a party instead of individuals, how does a winning party pick
representatives?  Is that selection method fair?

There are many, many ways to conduct elections, and your proportional
representation system has serious problems of its own.  It
underrepresents regional interests, and doesn't guarantee a
geographically diverse set of representatives.  You could complain that
geography (and in general physical boundaries) isn't important, but
you'd be wrong IMO.

-- 
"When in our age we hear these words: It will be judged by the result--then we
know at once with whom we have the honor of speaking.  Those who talk this way
are a numerous type whom I shall designate under the common name of assistant
professors."  -- Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (Wong tr.), III, 112





More information about the cypherpunks-legacy mailing list