[extropy-chat] Fahrenheit 911 - objective review?

[David]

Patrick Wilken wrote:
> 
> On 13 Aug 2004, at 17:43, Spike wrote:
> 
>> I am a right-ish capitalist libertarian.  I don't like
>> Bush myself but would like to see Ralph make a good
>> showing.  Perhaps in the next election, that result
>> would help those more likely to stay out of my portemonnaie.
>>
>> Politics create such odd paradoxes, ya gotta love it.
> 
> 
> Spike:
> 
> Its really too bad that US doesn't have proportional voting like in 
> Australia. It would help stop you have to second guess the party you 
> vote for.
> 
> best, patrick
> 
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Proportional voting is good in that a candidate with widely distributed 
support can still be elected with enough votes. This means that minor 
parties and independents can still get elected, which makes for a less 
monolithic House, and IMHO a more representative elect.

We also use Preferential Voting.  There is a quick explanation of each 
here:

http://www.eca.gov.au/systems/single/by_category/preferential.htm

http://www.eca.gov.au/systems/proportional/proportion_rep.htm

One of the benefits of the preferential system is that by listing your 
preferences in the right order you can make a 'protest vote' for a small 
party candidate while still having your vote count towards the major 
candidate that you dislike least.

-David