By John C. Strawn
Published July 6th 2000 in The Washington Post
E. J. Dionne Jr. acknowledges the valuable role of third parties but
still wonders if they should be allowed into the presidential debates
[op-ed, June 30]. This isn't rocket science. Why is it that we can put
a man on the moon but can't come up with a way to elect our president
that allows voters to vote for their favorite candidate, allows
multiple candidates to run and present their issues and ensures that
the winner has majority support? The real fault lies with our
presidential election method (also used to elect our congressional and
state legislatures), which allows a candidate to win whether he or she
has majority support or not. It defies the principle of "majority
rule." If we used a runoff election or an "instant runoff," which
elects a majority winner in one round, the "spoiler" problem would go
away. Why not criticize our election method instead of the
candidates?