Deep Voting Reform: Endowing the future with a voice in American politics

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Deep Voting Reform Endowing the future with a
voice in American politics
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Wherefore todays panel?

• To educate regarding a topic little thought of or
  understood.
• To encourage those with an interest in politics
  to choose a path less followed, but having
  potentially huge implications for sustainability.

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• The Industrial Revolution introduced
  something never before seen -- substantial change
  on a time scale of decades to centuries. Neither
  our genes nor our political systems have evolved
  to address problems, for example climate change
  or biological extinctions, that develop on such
  time scales.
• Rather, the essence of politics is to win the
  next election politicians have nothing to gain
  by addressing topics that will lead to serious
  problems well in the future.

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• To tackle long-term issues, such as achieving
  sustainability, the American voting system
  requires a fundamental, but simple, overhaul --
• replacement of Plurality Voting with a better
  system, plus public financing of elections.
• Together, these two improvements can greatly
  enhance the political voice of a now essentially
  voiceless future.

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Our present system Plurality Voting

• What is meant by plurality voting?

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When there are 3 or more candidates, the winner
can be elected with a mere plurality of the vote.

• Plus one is allowed to vote for only a single
  candidate, no matter how many are running.

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Among voting theorists, plurality voting is
usually relegated to the bottom of the barrel, in
comparison with other common voting methods

• Because, in any race with more than two
  candidates, plurality voting may elect the
  candidate least acceptable to the majority of
  those voting.

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1912 Presidential election is a good example.
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The 2000 Presidential election may be another
example where, because of a moderately popular
third candidate (Ralph Nader), the second most
popular candidate (George Bush) got elected.
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Whatever, ones political preference, I think we
can all agree that the history of the world
during the past 8 years and possibly for many
years into the future has been significantly
altered by the choice of President in 2000.
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So, we now have the spoiler phenomenon

• In 2004 the Republicans paid for Nader
  signature drives.
• And Democrats pay for radio ads for
  Libertarian candidates.

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And the lesser of two evils phenomenon

• No matter how much better than the Democratic
  Party nominee Ralph Nader might be, how can you
  possibly be voting for him all you will succeed
  in doing is get XXXX elected.
• For XXXX, fill in George W. Bush, John McCain,
  etc.

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And the throwing away your vote phenomenon

• How can you vote for XXXX, who has
• no chance to be elected? You are just
  throwing away your vote.
• For XXXX, fill in any 3rd party candidate

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Cant we do better than this?

• That is, better than Plurality Voting?

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There exist many other voting systems that allow
one to rank or score candidates, rather than
simply vote yes for one of them

• Approval
• Borda count
• Condorcet
• Instant runoff
• Proportional representation
• Range

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Approval Voting is my favorite

• Because it is simple, hard to game, and
  unlikely to lead to bad, counterintuitive results
  as some other voting systems occasionally can.

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Approval voting

• If X candidates are running, then a person can
  vote for (approve) as many as she or he wants.
  The voter does not rank her/his choices. The
  candidate with the most approvals is elected.

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If the 2000 Presidential election had been run
under approval voting then probably Al Gore would
have been elected and Ralph Nader would have
received many more votes than he actually did.
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What are some virtues of approval voting -- or of
any system that allows a voter to express
something positive about more than a single
candidate?
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Virtues of approval voting

• Winning candidate is acceptable to the largest
  fraction of the voters
• One is never throwing away ones vote
• Should reduce negative campaigning (because one
  wants to avoid antagonizing supporters of other
  candidates)
• Empowers 3rd parties, thereby diversifying
  debates and leading to a wider range of
  meaningful choices for a voter.

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Where are some places approval voting is used?

• In the U.N., to elect the secretary-general
• In Renaissance Italy for 500 years
• In various professional science and engineering
  societies
• A modified form of approval voting is used to
  elect the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club

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Why do we still retain plurality voting??

• Voter apathy (even in the wake of the 2000
  election)
• Active and passive resistance to change by the
  two major parties

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What are a few long-term issues related to
sustainability for which inclusion of additional
parties in U.S. politics could not but help?

• excessive military/corporate political influence
• rapid and seemingly endless U.S. population
  growth
• excessive meat eating
• slow pace of implementation of renewable energy
• over reliance on airplanes and cars to the
  exclusion of (rapid) passenger trains

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What can be done to make a difference, for
sustainability?

• If one is a political junkie, or even if one is
  not, one must wean oneself away from the instant
  gratification of seeing ones favorite
  Democratic or Republican candidate victorious and
  instead think long-term --
• For the long-term (sustainability), if one has
  energy to spend working in politics, one could
  not find a better cause than getting rid of
  plurality voting.

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The Sierra Club is full of political junkies who
spend an incredible amount of time trying to get
their favorite Democrat elected to office.

• While satisfying the day after election day (if
  your candidate is victorious), as regards
  sustainability, such policies are long-term
  losers.