Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!watmath!xenitec!edhew
From: edhew@xenitec.on.ca (Ed Hew)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: Give it up, folks
Summary: What current system represents "the will of the people"?
Message-ID: <1989Nov24.054639.24645@xenitec.on.ca>
Date: 24 Nov 89 05:46:39 GMT
References: <128132@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Reply-To: edhew@xenitec.UUCP (Ed Hew)
Followup-To: news.groups
Distribution: news
Organization: XeniTec Consulting Services, Kitchener, ON, Canada
Lines: 36

In article <128132@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> williamt@sun.UUCP (William A. Turnbow) writes:
>news.groups's own craig@com2serv.c2s.mn.org (Craig S. Wilson) said:
>Craig> I knew that this argument would rear its head.  But, yes, I am saying
>Craig> that each registered site gets one vote. 
>--------------
>	Sorry, but I strongly disagree.  One person.  One vote.  You have
>some sites with 10000 people and some with 1.  To equate the will of
>those 10000 people (each of whom may have a separate system (workstation)
>with the will of 1 is unfair and very unrepresentative of the will of
>the people.

Hmmmmm.  This is interesting.  In Canada we have electoral divisions
called "ridings" (this seems to mean that the politicials get to ride
the backs of the voters, but that's probably not the original intended
definition).  Some ridings may have as few as say 30,000 people, some
may have over 100,000 or more (we're talking provincial here, federal
is of course much larger).  While my numbers may not be totally accurate,
the principal currently in use certainly suggests that some riding
voters have triple or more the clout of people who may merely live on
the other side of some road.  Generally rural votes matter 3 or 4 times
as much as city votes individually.

I will leave it to the reader to determine if this is an equitable
non-"unrepresentative" way of determining the "will of the people".

Perhaps in the US all your electoral districts (or whatever you call
them) have *exactly* the same number of registered (or better yet,
actual) voters?  If you can honestly say "yes" to that question, then
you may have a basis for your argument.

>-wat-

  Ed. A. Hew       Authorized Technical Trainer        Xeni/Con Corporation
  work:  edhew@xenicon.uucp	 -or-	 ..!{uunet!}utai!lsuc!xenicon!edhew
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    # Justice is only relative to what you can afford to prove in court.