Placeholder, sort of - 13 January 2008

[silveradept]

I’m back, I survived, it’s all good, I’m going to bed. Regular news service resumes tomorrow. Oh, and Doctor Football is still unbeaten.

Missing Marine found dead. Investigation underway, both on crime and on the lack of speed or response police seemed to be showing about the missing Marine.

In politics, choosing a voting system other than plurality would be an improvement to our democracy.

And the writing piece for tonight - 10 things Teenage Writers Should Know.

Comments

[silveradept]

You're not voting, in the first part, you're ranking. So if you feel equally well about two candidates, you rank them that way, and let someone else who does have an opinion between then tip the rankings one way or another.

With IRV, you're not ranking candidates equally, not as far as I know. You're voting for them. "I want Candidate A into office, but if I can't get Candidate A, I'd like Candidate C, and if not either of them, Candidate B, then Candidate X..." and so on down the list of candidates. You can't give your 1 to two candidates in IRV.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

okay, so then I don't like the first one if you're not actually electing someone to office. I could live with the IRV,and I think that might be a better way of doing things, but I also think it would take a long time to process either.

[silveradept]

You are electing someone in the first one, you're just allowing for the possibility that you'd be happy with either or many candidates. You're not going to rank everyone a 5, now are you? Your choice-hating Republicans can go down to one, and choice-positive candidates can get sevens and eights. Then, the nation's preferences pan out. Of course, adopting that voting system might mean we see a conservative dynasty for years upon end, but it would be an accurate polling of the American populace in a lot of ways.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

But what if you want to rank someone at zero because you don't want them elected at all?

[silveradept]

Then you rank them zero. This brings their average down.

[annaonthemoon.livejournal.com]

Okay...I think I get it. Sort of.