Re: CHAT (POLITICS!!!): Putting the duh in Florida

On Mon, 4 Dec 2000, Morgan Palaeo Associates wrote:

> Yoon Ha Lee wrote, quoting myself (Adrian Morgan):
>
> > > This may sound a little harsh, but I find it unbelievable that a
> > > reasonably literate nation should still use a FPTP voting system (i.e.
> > > where everyone marks just one candidate). I think FPTP is suitable
> > > for developing nations with very low literacy, but I don't see why it's
> > > accepted elsewhere, because in the end it says nothing about which
> > > candidate really carries most favour with the community. I'd like to see
> > > Americans adopt a preferential voting system, or an equally
> sophisticated
> > > equivalent.
Hmm.  What *is* the literacy rate in the U.S., anyway?  <looking around>

> No, that's not how the preferential system works.
[snip]
'K.  I'll see if I can find anything on the mathematics of the
preferential system that might make it difficult to implement or
impractical in some situations.  Truth to tell, I don't know why any
nation picks any particular voting system.

> The preferential system makes ties impossible, if there are more than
> two candidates. Better, it distinguishes between much prefered,
> moderately prefered and not at all prefered politicians, thus capturing
> a lot more information about voter thinking.
Would it still allow cycles?  <headache>  (Sorry, this is one of those
sub-areas in math that I am terrible at, despite being a math major.)

Also, while some voters would consider these levels of preference a
*good* thing (I like the idea, but I want to look at the mathematical
analysis before I say anything else, and I bet there's one out there),
the entrenched Democratic and Republican parties might not like it if
it's apt to allow 3rd-party candidates to enter the system more easily.
<cynical look>

> I admit that it would be relatively expensive to go through all the
> steps for a country as populated as America (which is why I added "or
> equally sophisticated alternative") but in these sophisticated modern
> times it could be done. Australia uses it for local representatives
> and (in the Senate) for state representatives.
What are possible sophisticated alternatives?

YHL, wishing that either her comparative government had been more
detailed, or that she'd been paying more attention