hess@fortune.UUCP (Marty Hess) (09/20/84)
<... and a chicken in every garage!>
Well, I've been waiting for some ELSE to make the following suggestion,
but I guess I'll have to do it.
Let me ask you this, are you happy with the choices you're given on
election day? Each year we seem to be faced with a "lesser of two evils"
choice. I find this unsatisfying, don't you?
How about this as an alternative: For every position up for election,
you are given the list of candidates AND ONE OTHER CHOICE: "NONE OF THE ABOVE".
(And I don't want to hear about Sister Mary Boom-Boom either.) If "NONE OF THE
ABOVE" wins the election, we do it over (within some kind of limits), and the
previous candidates are DISALLOWED.
There's a big push this year to get people to go out and vote. I think
people aren't voting because they don't like the choices that they're being
given. You want to see votes? Let people choose who they WANT in office.
I'd really like to see someone pick up the ball on this, and persue it
realistically. There's got to be a way to make something like this work.
This has been an unpaid, political announcement. The opinions
presented above do not represent those of any sane individual, and certainly
have nothing whatsoever to do with the attitudes of anyone around me.
Please continue this discussion in "net.politics".
As usual, flames to /dev/blackhole .
--
Marty Hess Software Engineering - Graphics
UUCP: {sri-unix, amd, hpda, harpo, ihnp4, allegra}!fortune!hess
DDD: Co.: (415) 595-8444 Me direct: (415) 594-2565
USPS: Fortune Systems Corp, 101 Twin Dolphin Pkwy, Redwood Shores, CA 94065
P.S. Anyone outside of the USA got any comments on this?mike@erix.UUCP (Mike Williams) (09/24/84)
> P.S. Anyone outside of the USA got any comments on this?
All (Western) European electoral systems that I know anything about seem to
have this fault, one lands up voting for the the lesser of several evils. One
thing that I don't understand about the American presidential elections, is why
must the president be elected by all the people in the country? Why couldn't
he (she?) be elected by congress or the senate? In most European countries
the prime minister is simply elected (chosen) by the political parties which
forn the government. This means that the prime minister must have the support
of the government, and conversely will get thrown out if he/she does not
cooperate with the ruling parties.
The system by which the elections to the "parliament" are done, does have some
effect on the "lesser of several evils" senario. I think that proportional
represenation does help a lot (ie the system ensures that a party which gets
X% of the total vote also gets X% of the total representation in pariament).
This means that the lesser of the evils may not be too bad. Ie a small party
whose views one can accept. However the Big Ones in power don't like small
parties being founded (the small party might become BIG). So they make rules
which stop small small paries from being able to get off the ground. Here in
Sweden, the rule is that if a party gets less than 4% they don't get any
representation at all! There is an exception that if they get more than 12%
in one district, they will get some reprentation, but that hardly helps.
One thing that can be done is that for issues which become really heated, then
hold a referendum. This is done in several European countries. For example
the last referendum in Sweden was about the future of nuclear power. In
Wales (from whence I came) they have a referendum every 7 years about if the
pubs are to be open on Sundays!
--Mike Williams (mike@erix.UUCP or ...{philabs,decvax}!mcvax!enea!erix!mike
PS Since the Election of the American President effects us in Europe nearly
as much as it effect you in the USA maybe we should be able to vote too. :-)
PPS For "Mr/Ms Nobody" of course!medin@ucbvax.ARPA (Milo Medin) (09/28/84)
Gee, I think we've had a good choice these past 2 elections. You have 2 candidates who have very different views on the issues. I for one like the choice a lot better these past 2 elections than before. You certainly cant say it doesnt make a difference who wins! Milo Medin
zemon@felix.UUCP (Art Zemon) (10/02/84)
Although you cannot really vote for "nobody," you can
vote for yourself as a write-in candidate.
You could also vote for me. :-)
--
-- Art Zemon
FileNet Corp.
...! {decvax, ihnp4, ucbvax} !trwrb!felix!zemonlarryk@tektronix.UUCP (10/05/84)
Or ya cud vote fer None A. Bove.
ward@hao.UUCP (Mike Ward) (10/06/84)
> One > thing that I don't understand about the American presidential elections, is why > must the president be elected by all the people in the country? Why couldn't > he (she?) be elected by congress or the senate? One of the greatest things we've got going for us in the US is the principle of separation of powers. It's kind of a "balance of greed". This principle states that, if the different entities of the government are granted separate and independent powers, they will spend most of their time and energy squabbling over who is able to what, and leave the rest of us alone. When this works, we in the US do very well. But when the various units of government lose their political health, and have an attack of cooperation, then we tend to suffer. The very worst thing that could happen to us is the adoption of the Parliamentary system. The two party system is not written in our Constitution, but in our character, and even with our fragmented form of government, concentrations of power erupt all too frequently. -- Michael Ward, NCAR/SCD UUCP: {hplabs,nbires,brl-bmd,seismo,menlo70,stcvax}!hao!ward ARPA: hplabs!hao!sa!ward@Berkeley BELL: 303-497-1252 USPS: POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307
wildbill@ucbvax.ARPA (William J. Laubenheimer) (10/09/84)
> Or ya cud vote fer None A. Bove.
This has been possible when voting for Supervisor in San Francisco. There
is a gay group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence whose members
wear nun's habits when they are representing their association. One
of their members, Jack Fertig, has run for Supervisor in the last two
elections. He uses the name "Sister Boom Boom", and lists his occupation
(which also appears on ballots in California) as "Nun of the Above".
Just another example of the colorful political history of S.F.
Bill Laubenheimer
----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science
...Killjoy went that-a-way---> ucbvax!wildbillwmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (10/09/84)
Hmm... This inspires a thought: Given this (realistic?) situation: Postulate a local election in a small community, for an office such as mayor or councilman or the like. There are a couple "official" declared candidates for the office, whose names are on the ballot. There is also a space for a write-in. On election day, most of the voters (over 51%) write in the name "John Johnson" in the write-in space for this office. Now here's the key point: there are MULTIPLE "John Johnson"s living in this town, all qualified for election to this office. None of them has campaigned or otherwise indicated that they wanted to be elected on a "write-in" basis. What is the result? I can think of several possibilities: 1) The election is declared void and re-held. However, if none of the "John Johnson"s declare as candidates, the situation will recur indefinitely. 2) All the "John Johnson" votes are held to be for one of them, and he is declared the winner. (But how would the one be determined?) 3) All the "John Johnson" votes are declared invalid, and thrown out. Whichever of the "official" candidates had the most votes wins. 4) Everybody spends the rest of their lives in court over this. Does anybody have any idea what the various state election laws have to say about this situation? I would assume the result would vary from state to state. Comments or discussion? Will Martin
cej@ll1.UUCP (Chuck Jones MMOCS) (10/12/84)
> > Although you cannot really vote for "nobody," you can > vote for yourself as a write-in candidate. > > You could also vote for me. :-) > -- > -- Art Zemon > FileNet Corp. > ...! {decvax, ihnp4, ucbvax} !trwrb!felix!zemon Are you 35 years old? (or older?) I'm not, so I can't vote for myself (although I've thought about it for '92). I'm thinking about writting in my grandfather. (A wise old man, he is. Charles Jares is his name, if you want to vote for somebody's grandfather.) If you gotta' be 35, Chuck Jones age must be an issue ...ihnp4!mgnetp!ll1!cej -- I'll burn that bridge Chuck Jones when I come to it! ...ihnp4!mgnetp!ll1!cej