Re: <nettime> The hoopla over the US election and democracy

[Fred Baube <fbaube@saunalahti.fi>]

> If one wants to vote for a minor party, like the Greens, for example, 
> one is told that this is "wasting a vote." Hence there is no way within 
> the party structures to extend the spectrum so that, for example, the 
> decision to take U.S. troops out of Iraq immediately, would be part of 
> the public discussion during an election campaign. Thus the campaigns 
> are dominated by the two major parties misrepresenting each other's 
> programs so as to avoid debating any real issues.

A third-party vote IS mostly throwing it away, and zero-sum games of 
mutual rhetorical destruction ARE ensured, until they change the rules 
of the game. But most of the suggested rules changes involve runoff elec-
tions and/or party lists, both of which Americans seem dead-set against. 

So ... how about STV ?  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Transferable_Vote


FBaube
Helsinki
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