Where Elections Should Turn


By David Jackson
Published December 9th 2005 in The Washington Post
David Broder ["A Pox on Both Parties," op-ed, Dec. 1] presented a clear explanation of the causes for public distrust of both major political parties. But the situation is much worse than he admitted, because the answer to his concluding question, "When both parties have lost public confidence, where do voters turn?" is, unfortunately, "nowhere."

Partisan redistricting, the fundraising advantage of incumbents and the plurality electoral system for members of Congress so favor a two-party duopoly that the third, fourth and fifth parties millions of Americans might love to see have no chance of victory.

One part of the solution is proportional representation, in which parties would gain seats in Congress in relation to the percentage of votes they receive. But since neither major party wants to lose power, we probably will not see a much fairer electoral system anytime soon.

DAVID J. JACKSON

Bowling Green, Ohio
IRV Soars in Twin Cities, FairVote Corrects the Pundits on Meaning of Election Night '09
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers.  Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections;  the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.

And as pundits try to make hay out of the national implications of Tuesday’s gubernatorial elections, Rob Richie in the Huffington Post concludes that the gubernatorial elections have little bearing on federal elections.

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