[EL] Fw: Approval Voting Top Two Primaries

[Salvador Peralta]

Here's an interesting twist on the top two primary that may do a better job than the current "first to the post" system in terms of determining actual voter preferences.


This proposal, which is currently being prepared for circulation in Oregon would create a "preference voting" primary, which would allow voters to vote for as many candidates as they wish in a primary election.  The top two overall vote getters would advance to the general election.

I was first introduced by the concept by a fellow at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics who suggested that Oregon's Independent Party, which has 100,000 members statewide in Oregon, should use it as the basis for the party's political primary, because it is such a good method for determining actual group preferences
 from a list of given alternatives.

I am not currently involved in the Oregon effort, but I would be interested in hearing what people on the list think of this system of voting.

Here's an overview of the general concept of approval voting:

http://www.electology.org/approval-voting

Here's an academic treatment of the issue by Steven Brams & Peter Fishburn:

http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/politics/faculty/brams/theory_to_practice.pdf?q=pledge-shabad

Here are some articles related to the effort as proposed in Oregon.



MEASURE TEXT:   http://media.oregonlive.com/mapes/other/SP-2014-043.pdf
STORIES:  


http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/10/dave_frohnmayers_son_proposes.html#incart_river

http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-30782-mark_frohnmayer_proposes_open_primary_initative.html
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