Virginia Delegate Sam Rasoul (D-Roanoke) has again introduced his bill to convert elections for Congress and partisan state office to a top-two system, except that his new bill advances the top four candidates. See HB 360 here. The bill is flawed because it doesn’t re-define “political party”. In Virginia, a qualified party is one that polled at least 10% for any statewide office at either of the last two elections. The top-two system eliminates party nominees, so if the bill passed, the definition of a political party would be a group that had polled 10% for President (other offices would no longer count).
No party, other than the Republican and Democratic Parties, has polled as much as 10% of the presidential vote in the entire nation since 1968.
How Approval Voting (AppV) Brings a One-Party System
By James Ogle [One] for President
http://Www.1ogle.com
Under Plurality voting, voters use one “X” and under AppV voters can place an “X” on multiple names.
Under Plurality voting the biggest faction always wins. But when the biggest faction has too many good candidates then there can be a “split-vote problem”. Then the 2nd biggest faction can win as a result, with a smaller plurality of votes, and in random back-and-forth wins between the two biggest factions we see the two-party system.
That brings a two-party system, because there are wins between both the biggest and 2nd biggest.
AppV doesn’t allow for a 2nd biggest to win in either single-winner election districts or in multiple-winner election districts because the biggest faction always wins in both single-winner and multiple-winner election districts by having the most votes and when there are too many good candidates in a single-winner election district the biggest faction can put a vote on all of them.
In AppV there is no split vote problem in single-winner election districts. The percent of votes needed to win isn’t predictable because several names can surpass 50% of the votes cast.
AppV in single-winner election districts is the voting system that the L.P. will be using for Prez and VP, as I understand.
In multiple-winner election districts, AppV brings the same one-party system because the biggest faction can elect a slate by strategizing and no 2nd party can overcome the slate except in some cases when there are more open seats than votes cast by each voter. But in that case the winners not with biggest faction win a disproportionately small number of seats. The biggest faction usually elects most of the seats under AppV because of slates and the percent needed to win isn’t predictable.
Coming in 2020, the 539-party system to the 538-member Electoral College, by using ranked choice voting in one 538-member Electoral College election district. To do this voters simply rank all candidates for POTUS, Vice-president and all Electors with consecutive numerals, electing 538 consecutively ranked names.
Under PPR, #1 and #2 are Prez and VP, they and the 538 Electors are elected as one big bunch of equals since the threshold for every name is the same under the Droop Quota, 1/539ths (plus one vote) for each name.
Get the blank paper ballot for the new pure proportional representation Electoral College:
http://www.allpartysystem.com/e-aps-13.pdf
Top Two Tyranny is spreading arpund the country like cancer. If this gets implemented in every state it will further entrench the ruling establishment and put reform via electoral politics more out of reach than it already is.
It is Top 4 with a RCV general.
Since party nominations won’t exist for Congress, legislature, and the state executive, and Virginia does not have partisan registration, it would be better to adopt the system used in Washington of self-designation.
PR and NONPARTISAN AppV – pending Condorcet.
Correction: Top 4 Tyranny. How about Ranked Choice Voting instead?
Richard:
Wouldn’t Ross Perot’s 1996 campaign as the head of the Reform Party show that even a billionaire would have severe difficulty just getting over 5% nowadays?