with that scheme?

It’s a fascinating subject.

Just out of curiosity, who would you like to see elected in 2012?

Approval voting solves a good deal of the voting quirks that come up sometimes (like how it’s better to have 1 good conservative in the primary to oust the RINO than 2 or more) while maintaining what I call the ‘grandmother’ voting system criterion: can you explain your voting system to your (or someone else’s) grandmother in 12 words or less? If you can’t then your voting system is too complicated.

I’d love to see approval voting in Republican primaries; in the general, well, that’s a more complicated subject.

Ex NYer, living in Australia here. Long time reader, first-time poster.
Full disclosure, I would be regarded as a liberal by most of the administration and frequent contributors here. That does not prevent me from appreciating and benefiting from this site.

For the serious work that many here do in dissecting issues of policy, pragmatism and principle, I thank you.

Preferential voting has been in place here for some time. It brings with it advantages and disadvantages. The deal-making required to form a government where no single party has a majority in its own right is no more or less obscene than the pork-barreling within parties. Ridiculous minor parties (Free Beer Party, Flying Yogi Party) are a minor annoyance, but no serious drawback. When a third-party becomes successful in a limited way, it is usually an indication that a single issue has become important enough to some segment of the voting public. The major parties respond in time to this message.

The tide seems to be turning here. The more conservative parties have regained control of two states recently, with a third likely soon. Neither side of politics is particularly advantaged or weakened by the system.

It is, I will admit, tiresome to fill out a preference sheet where fifty or sixty parties are represented.

AussieGothamite

I am referring to your comment on a 2 party system. While the US — at the federal level — is essentially a default 2 party system, that does not mean that two parties-only is the best model for another country. In the UK, the strength of UKIP in EU elections has been a breath of fresh air. So I’d say keep your 3rd party disline to U.S. commentary and let other countries decide whether they want strong issue-focused 3rd parties that build coalitions.

to do with the general hatred of the Lib-Dems in Britain than to do with the British opposing AV. A widespread and irrational case of Lib-Demophobia is gripping the nation, and the backlash is the result of the AV referendum. So don’t overestimate the British populace.

You could make the argument that both AV and third parties are largely unnecessary or irrelevant in the US as party members are more willing to vote independently in defiance of their leaders. Major party Parliamentarians in the UK and Australia nearly always vote in line with party instruction.

I believe this tendency in the US is due to both the American spirit of independence and the three-branch system of government. Rebellious members of a major party do not tend to lead to the fall of a government.

AussieGothamite

As I understand it, AV was just a variant on Instant Runoff, a most dubious method of counting votes. On the surface, IRV appears to gather more information from voters. Instead of a favorite, a voter gets to rank all the candidates. However, most of this information is thrown out during the counting. Suppose George is the favorite for 20% of the population and the second favorite of 80% of the population. Meanwhile Fred, John and Cathy are each the favorite of more than 20% but are hated by everyone else. George gets eliminated in the first round even though he is the most liked overall.

A superior voting system is Range Voting. This is the system used by the ancient Germans and Spartans. Instead of merely picking your favorite candidate or ranking them, you grade each candidate. In ancient times this was done by voice vote (and perhaps a bit of violence where passions were high). Today, we have the computing power to tally numerical scores. You have seen it in action at the Olympics. This is also how your school “votes” for valedictorian. In both cases we have more than two candidates and multiple voters.

First past the post breaks down miserably when there are more than two serious candidates.