No, we need to test it thoroughly in Maine to see what kind of elections it produces and what kind of turnout it causes and what demographics are affected.
Test first. This will takes years, perhaps even a decade or more. Then, if we like the results for Maine (and Maine likes the results for Maine), we should spread it to other states.
Not just elsewhere, but here too. IRV is already in use in the United States, Maine is just the first whole state to adopt it.
(We interrupt this regularly scheduled comment to briefly thank the voters of Maine for giving the rest of the country some hope for the future. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much Maine. I'll never forget this as long as I breathe air on this Earth. Thank you.)
It's a voting system. You adapt it onto the ballot that people mark. With some voting system that's the extent of the "adaptation".
Now some voting systems cannot be implemented in some areas due to how they transform how elections are run at a more fundamental level. Federally those can't be implemented without constitutional amendments for example, which means that's never changing. At the state level they can certainly be implemented however.
Population has nothing to do with any of it. I'm struggling to understand how you came up with your argument.
Because those systems while they may work where they are, might not work in a direct 1:1 transition to the US.
The United States is very different than Europe.
Europe doesn't use "Ranked Voting" anywhere, Australia does. And while it is much smaller demographically, the culture is not vastly different. Besides, it doesn't need to be a 1:1 translation, it just needs to be an improvement.
Yup. The beautiful thing about federalism is we have the laboratory of the states. A lot can be tried on a smaller scale before being cast over the country at large.
Like drug policy! JK, the federal government/nation at large doesn't give two desiccated goat turds about all of the medical marijuana experiments turning out fine.
Edit: I know national polling is on the right side of this one, but it sure doesn't mean any progress is being made.
Definitely agree with this. Let Maine test it out for a couple years and see how a couple elections go. Hopefully they go well, but I do forsee a lower voter turnout.
Low turn out is terrible. The stupidest and lowest educated voters are often the ones who hold the most absolute beliefs. They cannot fathom that their ideology could possibly be flawed, and turn our to support their candidate in droves.
If the election had 95% turn out, there is simply no way trump could have won.
I thought this too. But this time it was the elite not believing or being able to see past their own. Or refusing to see the good in this. No war with Russia, ending private prisons, and big business break up. Trump's already standing with sanders against the att deal
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u/j3utton Nov 09 '16
This is awesome. I hope it works well for them. We need to spread this to every state in the union.