This Houston Chronicle story says Libertarian Party candidates for the legislature are more and more likely to poll a number of votes that is greater than the difference between the two major party candidates. However the article does not mention ranked choice voting. Thanks to Clifford Thies for the link.
Well, we don’t have RCV here in Texas, and I don’t foresee it on the horizon for the foreseeable future, so I don’t know why the Chronic would mention it, and so, it should not be taken as some glaring deficit that it wasn’t mentioned.
More minority rule district hacks in the overall minority rule oligarch regime.
1/2 OR LESS votes x 1/2 rigged gerrymander areas = 1/4 OR LESS CONTROL.
—
PR in ALL regimes = MAJORITY RULE = Democracy by definition
— NOT void for vagueness — except for math and polisci MORONS.
There were 6 such races in 2006, and 4 in 2008.
What kind of idiot would expect voters to rank 95 races?
Top 2 would be better.
my post was deleted?
top two is horrible. It’s a duopoly attempt to screen out third parties as soon as possible in the electoral process.
I didn’t delete any comment.
ok. most be a glitch on my end.
ND libertarians would probably do well [like in Texas], but the state rigged primary process.
The minority rule in CA is a bit worse due to the CA top 2 primary —
about 10-15 pct of D or R voters did NOT vote in RR [or R-Other] and DD [or D-Other] gerrymander districts.
Most regimes — about 30 percent minority rule
— CA about 25 pct minority rule — worse also due to having LOTS of illegal invaders being counted in 2010 Census for *representation* in CA — more SUBVERSION stuff.
Minority rule will be worse in all regimes in 2021-2022 — last cycle with 2010 Census junk/obsolete data.
@CL,
The only independent in the last 80 years was elected in a Top 2 election.
In Texas, maybe.
@Jim,
In Texas, though it likely applies to ordinary states.
Well, I grew up in Connecticut and I can think of two notable elections off the top of my head.
1990 Lowell Weicker was elected Governor under the A Connecticut Party banner against a Republican, a Democrat, and a Concerned Citizen candidate.
And in 2006 Joe Lieberman was elected to US Senate under the Connecticut For Lieberman party banner against a Republican, a Democrat, a Green, and a Concerned Citizen candidate.
I know those aren’t for the state assembly, but since it’s going higher, not lower, I figured they should count.
And the Libertarian Party elected one person to the state legislature in Alaska in 1984 against a Republican and a Democrat. 3 others in Alaska in 1978-1980 and 1 in New Hampshire in 2000 were elected in multi-member districts with more than enough Rs and Ds to shut out the Libertarians, if the voters had wanted.
Weicker and Lieberman had consdiderable name recognition, and would likely have won under Top 2.
Weicker and Lieberman were helped because they each had a Republican opponent and a Democratic opponent. Therefore, in the general election, the public didn’t perceive of either of them as being “really” a Democrat or a Republican. When a candidate like Weicker and Lieberman is being attacked during the general election campaign by both a Republican opponent and a Democratic opponent, people tend to like Weicker or Lieberman more than they would have otherwise.
Top-two has been used in Washington starting in 2008, and in California starting in 2012, and in neither state has any independent or minor party member been elected to any federal or state office. But during the same period (2008-present), independent or minor party members have been elected to federal or state office in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
PR – elect lots of NON-Donkeys/Elephants.
See the various PR regimes – Germany, Israel, New Zealand [ex Brit gerrymander regime], etc.
BUT – must have TOTSOP — in ALL regimes.
@RW,
In Texas it was open primary, as in Louisiana. Independents do better in smaller districts where personal campaigning is possible.
Quasi-independents have been elected in Washington.