Joe Mathews, who writes about California government and politics, here writes about how California’s top-two system injures independent candidates.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Joe Mathews, who writes about California government and politics, here writes about how California’s top-two system injures independent candidates.
Joe seems to be critical of Top Two because it doesn’t privilege “Independent” candidates. He also appears to confuse Independents with “moderates,” whatever they are. In any case, Joe, like Richard and other complainers about Top Two, are looking at the process in the wrong way.
Top Two is a democratically perfect way to end an election cycle. It always produces a winner with a clear majority of the votes. This helps assure the legitimacy of the winner in a way that cannot be done in systems that produce a multiplicity of 2d placers and a winner with a plurality but not a majority — like Rank Choice.
The problem, from the democratic POV, isn’t Top Two, its campaign finance laws. Public financing is what’s needed to further enhance the democratic character of California’s elections. Arguing about Top Two is a distraction, and a disservice to Independents and Third Parties.
Top 2 is a short version of RCV/IRV — and does ZERO about the rigged gerrymander districts.
NO primaries.
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PR and AppV
William, California’s top-two does not guarantee that the winner has a majority. Up to 25% of the voters who cast a ballot leave it blank when there are two candidates from the November ballot from the same party. So candidates gets elected without a majority of the voters who actually cast a ballot.
Dan Schnur was not that outstanding of a candidate, and he has the negative of an odd name. He would have never even tried to gather the signatures to be an independent candidate for a minor office under the old partisan primary system.
What polarizing candidates have been promoted by Top 2 in Washington or California?
Virtually all of California’s Republican U.S. House members, especially Devin Nunes. Also the two leading candidates among the Republicans for Governor this year, Travis Allen and John Cox.
ALL the gerrymander districts are rigged packed/cracked political concentration camps by the rigged CA gerrymander commission
— think Stalin and Hitler camps — producing
— guess what — more Stalin and Hitler clone robots HACKS.
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PR and AppV
@RW,
When was Top 2 implement in California.
When was Devin Nunes first elected to Congress?
Do you understand the concept of cause and effect?
Speaking of John Cox, did you see Joe Mathews March 27 column in Fox&Hounds about the neighborhood legislature initiative?
::Top Two is a democratically perfect way to end an election cycle.::
This is party duckspeak right here. The only “democratically perfect” way to elect someone is with no election at all but with sortition. & I guess all those proportionally allocated parliaments in Europe have it all wrong then?
::Public financing is what’s needed to further enhance the democratic character of California’s elections.::
You want my money to go to multiple people I don’t agree with? What a ringing endorsement of tax evasion… why not impose spending limits like the rest of the western world? That way, free speech in the form of contributions isn’t restricted, only how much propaganda politicians pay to propagate.
Since top 2 started in CA —
What percent of the top 2 got at least 33.33333333 percent plus 1 votes in the primary ???
What percent of the lower of the primary top 2 have been elected ???
The United Coalition is designed for unity required to achieve 33.33% (plus one vote) under California’s top two, our team has been using the mathematical unity strategy of pure proportional representation (PPR) for more than twenty-three consecutive years and PPR works fine.
In 2012 our team won the Libertarian Party’s only State primary (MO) which fell before their national convention with 52.7% but the party bosses aren’t interested in such achievements by using team psychology, despite their national chair blocking all hyperlinks from their national web site and their bias and unfair treatment.
Our team brings unity but pluralist respond to that with bullying, censorship and approval of powergrabbing for self-centered conceited egomaniacs.
The mathematics are dry and everyone wants to improve so as more people somehow learn that unity is stronger than division despite the pluralist momentum maybe such wins by attaining 33.33% (plus one vote) will become commonplace.
http://www.international-parliament.org/ucc.html