Techdirt Podcast Episode 98: Is There A Better Way To Pick A President?
from the election-fever dept
Well, today's the day. By tomorrow there will be a new President of the United States, and a large segment of the population claiming that they were robbed by the system. But immediate anger aside, that system is hardly above criticism: the Electoral College has had all sorts of unanticipated and often undesirable effects on democracy, and a wide variety of alternatives have been proposed. This week we discuss the question: is there a better way to pick the president?
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Filed Under: democracy, donald trump, election, hillary clinton, podcast, potus
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No there won't. There will be a new presumptive President-elect, which will be made official after the electors vote.
Next January there will be a new President of the United States.
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Are there problems with both? yes. but they're boundlessly better than the current.
The voting system must change to fix anything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo
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*Range voting is the answer. http://rangevoting.org/ That plus redrawing election districts via shortest splitline to get rid of gerrymandering.
Are there problems with both? yes. but they're boundlessly better than the current*
Yes, we discuss both of those in the podcast. Only mention range voting briefly, but it's in there. And definitely discuss the problems of gerrymandering as well.
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Yes range voting is more complex in operation, but people do it every day. Your favorite book or movie is rated the same way.
There would be some legal challenges, but then there are legal challenges in every current election.
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My take is again, ditch first past the post in favor of range voting and ditch primaries completely. have 15 names on the ballot and let the people go crazy.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI&index=5&list=PL7679C7ACE93A5638
Some other videos worth considering are
The problems with first past the post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo
The alternative vote explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3jE3B8HsE
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Mixed-Member Proportional Representation Explained
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU
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I tend to feel like
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I want the candidate I chose to win, but what I want more than that, is a fair and honest election. Creating loop holes where illegal immigrants can vote, people can vote multiple times, dead people can vote.. etc.. is not what our forefathers intended and is a disgrace to ourselves and our country.
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It's a lot of work for not much pay off and it's risky as all hell.
Election fraud on the other hand is relatively easy to pull off and has a huge return on investment.
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On Maine's ballot today -
If it succeeds, it'll be an interesting experiment.
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REALLY dont want to do this..
2. There is NO WAY top get Balance in the states.
DID you know that Farm states have a Higher ranked vote??
do you know Why?? BECAUSe of population..Farmers get upto a 1.6 vote..
3. If you use the Electoral , then it MUST be split According to the percentage a state has VOTED..no way is it fair to give ALL votes to 1 person..
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STV Versus MMP
(Technically, STV is not a proportional voting system. Nevertheless, the way it works in practice is very similar to a proportional voting system.)
In a nutshell, the primary difference is that STV gives power to individual politicians over their parties, while MMP gives power more to the parties than to individual politicians.
Based on the fact that politics in NZ is primarily party-based, we went for MMP. And I think the country has been much better for it.
I think you should look at something similar for electing your members of Congress, for a start.
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If The Republicans Roll Back Everything Obama Has Done ...
That’s about the saddest thing I can imagine Trump doing--short of downright nightmare scenarios, anyway ...
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My One Forlorn Hope ...
But then, given that so many put loyalty to their party before loyalty to their country, I suspect that they will all find a way to grin and bear it, and continue as though they and Trump were always the best of mates...
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BTW the Utah thing was all about counting votes by state. Had nothing to do with one-vote-per-voter (direct democracy).
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BTW the Utah thing was all about counting votes by state. Had nothing to do with one-vote-per-voter (direct democracy). And Primaries are the property of the individual organisations and have nothing to do with Federal Election requirements.
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