1. Have they announced which polls they’ll use to decide whom to invite?

2. If the lawsuits fail, who’s up for protesting these “debates”? Jill Stein and her eventual VP, if they do another protest like she and Honkala did in 2012, shouldn’t be alone this time. Boycotting the corporations that fund the CPD would be good too if we can’t protest, we can aim for even more than three corporations backing out this time around.

3. I HATE it when candidates get themselves arrested.

4. How about having NO body watch the 2 wannabee TYRANT hacks from Electoral College HELL – with their totally predictable STATIST control freak agendas ???

5. Nothing will change with the duopoly in power. Stein and Johnson will be ignored and will end up with less than 1% of the vote each, just like every other year. The only way to reduce the power of the duopoly is to replace the existing system of electing government leaders with something radically different. Yes, Demo Rep’s proportional representation in a parliamentary system would qualify as such a change. Unfortunately, the US Constitution along with all state constitutions would need major surgery to make it happen, so it’s just a fantasy – TPTB will never allow such changes to happen.

   Whatever its called – ranked choice voting, preference voting or instant runoff voting – is the only system that is both feasible and would reduce the power of the duopoly.

   Therefore, IMO, the presidential election/circus, control of the House and Senate, etc. is not the most important election in 2016. The single most important election is Question 5 on the ballot in the State of Maine. If that passes, there is hope for other states to adopt RCV. If not, then IMO the next major change to electoral systems in the USA will likely be the result of a coup d’état, which could happen within the next couple of decades.

   https://ballotpedia.org/Maine_Ranked_Choice_Voting_Initiative,_Question_5_(2016)

6. Me thinks Don Wills is pessimistic too much. I agree that Ranked Choice Voting (and proportional representation) would be a huge step towards making our country’s elections more democratic, but if Gary Johnson goes from getting up to double digits in the polls to less than 1% at the general election, then forget RCV, we’d need the UN to come in here and investigate. Frankly they should have been here years ago; the immense power our government under the D’s and R’s wields internationally has unfortunately shielded our country from the same sort of election probes that other countries with undemocratic election systems have had.

   I think there is so much popular anger that the question isn’t whether Jill or Gary will end up with less than one percent each, but whether they’ll get over 5% of the vote each, assuming Hillary et al doesn’t engage in more election fraud.

7. There is nothing in the U S Constitution that prevents proportional representation. In fact our system of separation of powers actually solves the down side to proportional representation, namely that if no one party has a clear majority the government has to form a coalition and if the coalition breaks down you have to hold a new election. In our system you would jest elect a new Speaker of the House.

8. Joshua – Remember my post in November.

   Brandon – Seriously? The 17th amendment is specific in describing single winner Senate elections. The biggest single winner election is of course the US Presidential election. And while the single winner, district based election for House members for States with two or more members is not specifically spelled out in the US Constitution, it is specifically described in most State Constitutions.

   There seem to be a large number of idealists who post here at BAN. My problem with such thinking is that in my many years of following politics, particularly the liberty movement, I have watched idealists get all excited about their candidate or third party for a few years, and then reality smacks them down, and they leave the fight. If those who don’t leave would temper the naiveté of the newbies, maybe substantiative change would be possible. But I don’t see that happening, with the single lone exception of the folks pushing for RCV.

9. Preference voting and other ranked ballot voting systems are not the best or even a particularly good alternative to FPTP. Approval and score voting (aka range voting) are simpler and better. The key to getting it used is to expand the power of initiative to more states. This is because elected officials are not going to change the method of their own election given that they won with the current system. The citizens have to take this matter into their own hands.

10. Rock –

    I agree that Approval voting is “simpler” than RCV.

    However, I strongly disagree that Approval voting is “better” than RCV.

    In single winner elections, there are three systems in consideration –

    #1 Vote for your choice (FPTP)
    #2 Vote for those who you approve (Approval)
    #3 Rank your vote for as many as you want (RCV)

    #1 provides very little information to “the process” of electing a person. #2 provides somewhat more information, but #3 provides the most information of the three choices.

    The bottom line is if we’re going to have to go through the very long process of moving away from FPTP, why not go for the better alternative?

11. I ran across this list during my short time in politics. It is very enlightening. In the current system, here are the reasons why people vote the way they do, in decreasing order of importance.

    – party affiliation
    – vote against a candidate because you dislike the candidate
    – for a candidate because you like the candidate
    – single issue
    – general philosophy of candidate aligns with voter
    – personal gain (bring home the bacon and gimme free stuff)
    – as a statement of who you are
    – the lesser of two evils
    – vote for who somebody told you would be good with no other information
    – vote for who you think will win

    All in all, the list is a pretty sad commentary on democracy in America today, but it’s reality. RCV or Approval voting would alter this list dramatically.

12. http://www.whio.com/news/news/wright-state-cancels-debate-politicians-react/nr2My/

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