Check as many as apply
Today, while working diligently on a great many matters of public importance, xkcd led me to this site on approval voting. While I had of course heard of approval voting before, I'd never given it much thought. Now that I have, I have only one question (albeit in three parts):
Why don't we do this nationally? What disadvantage would there be? Is our current ballot system in place purely to ensure higher party donation rates?
I'm honestly curious as to anything that I might not have thought of.
Why don't we do this nationally? What disadvantage would there be? Is our current ballot system in place purely to ensure higher party donation rates?
I'm honestly curious as to anything that I might not have thought of.
posted by Pascals Bookie @ 10:55 AM
2 Comments:
In order, as I see it:
1) We don't do this nationally because of (of course!) federalism. Right now, as provided by the Constitution, the method of elections is determined by the states. Furthermore, say we're talking about the election of the president and the electoral college. Is Ohio - for example - going to want to switch over to an alternate method of choosing electors proportionally (or what-have-you), and risk splitting their electoral votes? If that were the case, and the other 49 states kept their current method, Ohio would be totally ignored, as the winning candidate would only accrue a marginal benefit from a solid majority.
2) One potential downside of switching from a "one person, one vote" system would be potential disenfranchisement of voters. Let's say there are four candidates running for Governor and we're using approval voting as cited above. What if I like two candidates, but my neighbor likes three? Does that mean my neighbor has 50% more suffrage than me? In a strict 'one vote' system, each person's maximum preference is one, preserving a rough equality. In approval voting, the indecisive voter (if you will) has a greater right to direct affairs.
3) No, it's not in place simply to ensure higher donations.
I don't know if placing three votes instead of two gives you anymore suffrage, as (in your example) if I voted for all four candidates, my vote would be as much of a wash as if I'd voted for none of them. In approval voting, checking the box and not checking the box are equally powerful, as not checking is tantamount to a vote against a candidate.
Also, I don't know if having one state's elections run this way would mean that the state would be ignored, and in fact I don't see the logic for it (yet) but I can guess that that state's campaigning would be more issue-oriented.
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