[Info-vax] [Totally OT] Covid-19 / Politics

[Phillip Helbig undress to reply]

In article <r4qjsg$k1i$1 at dont-email.me>, "John E. Malmberg"
<wb8tyw at qsl.net_work> writes: 

> >> my claim about the super delegates stands.  Not picked by voters.
> > 
> > If you object to lack of democracy, the Electoral College itself and the
> > way the popular vote in a state is converted into delegates is a much
> > bigger problem.
> 
> With out the Electoral College, for all of its flaws, only a handful of 
> states (Actually large cities in those states) would effectively decide 
> most presidential elections.

One could argue that that is OK, if they represent the majority of the 
population.  Even if not, one could imagine a scheme where the President 
can be elected only if he gets the majority of the popular vote AND a 
majority of states.  Or many other schemes.  Many would be better than 
the Electoral College.  It might have made sense two-and-one-half 
centuries ago, but times have changed.

In other words, there are more options than just the Electoral College 
or a popular vote and nothing else.

> Be aware that when there is an incumbent president, most states allow 
> voting in the opposition party primary instead, so those that support 
> the current president will be casting primary votes for the candidate 
> that they think is most likely to lose.

That is just stupid.

> 1. All voters can vote in every party primary.
> 2. No political parties listed on a general election ballot.

I would rather see a complete party system, i.e. the party elects their 
candidate, by whatever rules they want (which could include polling 
their members, or even an open primary), or just a list of names.

There are other problems, of course.  Imagine, say, 60% of the voters in 
one camp, and 40% in the other, but 5 candidates in the first camp and 
only one in the other.  Due to splitting the vote in camp A, the camp-B 
candidate would win, even though a clear majority are in the other camp.
This is usually handled by requiring an absolute majority; if there is 
none in the first round, then there is a runoff.  (This can even be done 
without a separate second election in a so-called instant runoff, where 
one ranks the candidates in order of preference.)