On January 9, Pennsylvania State Senator Mike Folmer (R-Lebanon) was appointed Chair of the Senate State Government Committee. This is the committee that hears election law bills. Folmer has been the leading legislative champion of ballot access reform in Pennsylvania starting in 2009. He introduced ballot access improvement bills in 2009, 2011, and 2013, and intends to do so again this year.
His bill never got a committee hearing in the past, but now that he is the Chair of the Committee, that won’t be a problem. Folmer did hold informal hearings on the bill in his own district office in the past, to gain publicity for the bill, but of course a formal legislative hearing is far more useful.
Also the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition, which has had an inactive web page for many years, is about to launch a new web page that will be current.
Let’s hope that people like Mr. Mike Folmer will get on the ball and see the light with regard to single-winner election districts and see how they are killing not just third party and independent candidate efforts but unity candidates in major parties too.
Single-winner election districts and the psychology which surrounds them creates a scenario where the single person is like a roadblock to unity and cooperation.
In every case, single-winner districts are wrecking havoc to unity and cooperation in politics.
Are you interested in learning how working together with the 100% is far more powerful that fighting and division we continually see year after year by the dictator single-winner unilateralist?
Check out the 9th USA Parliament! We abandoned single-winner elections and have been increasing the size of election districts steadily for twenty years and this has done wonders for unity:
http://usparliament.org/
Article II, section 16 of the Pennsylvania Constitution mandates single-winner districts, and even specifies that the State House must have 203 such districts. No bill changing the Pennsylvania legislature to multi-member districts can be entertained; the state constitution would need to be changed, which would require action by both the legislature and then the voters.
That needs to get done then, because with single-winner districts, election campaigns will forever perpetuate the two-party system.
Great Britain House of Commons elections are all single-member district, but most commentators agree that Britain should no longer be considered a two-party system. Ditto Canada.
The term “two-party system” is very general, unpredictable and not representative of the votes cast.
Pure proportional representation (PR) is extremely exact, there is never any doubt or changes in the math and is a mathematical perfect reflection of votes cast.
The reason why commentators might say that countries which use single-winner districts aren’t a two-party system is because they are trying to defend a bad system which the 100% can’t support.