[EL] FW: An Electoral College Tie?

[Trevor Potter]

like Paul, I was struck by the assertion that the "goal" of our election system was to "elect the best person for the job.".

That may have been the goal of the drafters who conceived of  the electoral college, but post G. Washington it has never had that function.

I was recently told by a Chinese Communist Party official that the "goal" for their political system was the selection of the best possible and most qualified  persons to lead their country--and that they did not believe that our western  democratic systems had either that goal or those results! The official was quite clear that he thought there was a tension between majoritarian voting systems and the selection of the "best" leaders--and China knew which way they wanted to  resolve that tension....

Trevor Potter

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 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Paul Lehto [mailto:lehto.paul at gmail.com]
Sent:	Friday, December 16, 2011 11:19 AM Eastern Standard Time
To:	Joe La Rue
Cc:	JBoppjr at aol.com; law-election at department-lists.uci.edu; BSmith at law.capital.edu
Subject:	Re: [EL] FW: An Electoral College Tie?

On Fri, Dec 16, 2011 at 9:05 AM, Joe La Rue <joseph.e.larue at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> "[...] I think what he said was, *the goal* of a national *election* for
> president is *to elect the best person *for the job. The goal should not
> be [...]" (emphasis added)
>
>
>  "Elections" do not, in and of themselves, have "goals" other than the
following: *to objectively measure the intent of the voters* as expressed
by their ballots, after a process called campaigning structured such that
voters may become reasonably informed.

Thus, it is a purpose of campaigns and competing media to facilitate an
informed electorate, because  no rational person with the best interests of
the country in mind would want the electorate to be uninformed when they
are acting in their sovereign capacity to delegate their power to
representatives, via election.

*Elections, in and of themselves, do not have a "purpose" or "goal" of
electing the "best" person for the job.  A free people, in order to be
considered free, must be able to make a mistake and elect the "worst"
person for the job* -- if that is their free, considered, choice.   There's
no alternative consistent with freedom because a populace whose choices are
either constrained or "managed" in any way for goals or purposes other than
simply objectively measuring the intent of the voters is a populace whose
freedom is being constrained.

Consequently, while everyone is free to, for example, support a given
electoral system on the grounds that it "encourages a stable, two party
system", it is not the purpose or goal of elections or of liberty to
encourage a stable, two party system.  The goal of liberty is liberty.
All considerations named as the "goal" or "purpose" of elections that are
outside the scope of objectively measuring voter intent after a process of
reasonably informing voters via campaigning are collateral or ulterior to
the actual purpose of elections:  Measuring voter intent, and thereby
guaranteeing SELF-government by We the People.

A freedom-loving person reserves the right to themselves to make mistakes
(and to take responsibility as appropriate, for those mistakes), and
respects and tolerates that same right with all others, including the right
of We the People to elect the "wrong" candidate - however
*subjectively*one measures that quality.

Some of the interesting discussion in this thread, on all sides, smuggles
into the purpose of elections things that in fact constrain the freedom of
We the People (no matter how good, meritorious and wise those purposes may
seem to be).  Whoever manages or constrains the sovereign (the voters) is
to that extent usurping the role of the sovereign and putting a thumb on
the scales of elections, to some degree or another.

Paul Lehto, J.D.

-- 
Paul R Lehto, J.D.
P.O. Box 1
Ishpeming, MI  49849
lehto.paul at gmail.com
906-204-4026 (cell)

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