Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!nrl-cmf!ukma!rutgers!bellcore!texbell!uhnix1!sugar!ficc!jeffd
From: jeffd@ficc.uu.net (jeff daiell)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: voting system
Keywords: A Modest Proposal
Message-ID: <2604@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 3 Jan 89 16:43:45 GMT
Organization: Ferranti International Controls
Lines: 28


  Since I don't drink coffee, I'll use my coffee break to
post this.

  Re: voting systems ... first, to the idea that an election
cannot be "fair" if it includes more than two candidates ....
if the legal limit is two, how is that fair to other
potential candidates and their supporters -- or to voters
who might want a wider choice?   Second, a modest proposal:
let's add None Of The Above in every race.  Even if a win
by NOTA does not result in the office's abolition, or even
vacancy until the next election, it would at least 
make it thoroughly clear that the person who took the office
(the second-place finisher) had no "mandate".  The NOTA option
might even cause turnout to rise --- and votes for NOTA would be
unmisinterpretable, as opposed to staying home, which the
pols claim comes from contentment, not disgust.


Jeff Daiell (opinions my own, until taxed away)

INDEPENDENCE FOR TEXAS!


-- 
              
              "There's a place in the sun
              Where there's hope for everyone ...
              Gonna find me a place in the sun."