election-law_gl-digest Tuesday, March 19 2002 Volume 01 : Number 167
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Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 08:35:24 -0800
From: Rick Hasen <rick.hasen@lls.edu>
Subject: Democrats Get Record Gift of 'Soft Money' They Oppose
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Rick Hasen
Professor of Law and William M. Rains Fellow
Loyola Law School
919 South Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015-1211
(213)736-1466 - voice
(213)380-3769 - fax
rick.hasen@lls.edu
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html
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<title> Democrats Get Record Gift of 'Soft Money' They Oppose </title>
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<meta name=3D"description" content=3D"While Democrats launched a final pu=
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<span CLASS=3D"deckhead">THE NATION</span><br>
<SPAN CLASS=3D"cHeadline1">Democrats Get Record Gift of 'Soft Money' They=
Oppose</SPAN><BR>
<SPAN class=3D"keydeck14"><img src=3D"/images/standard/blackpix.g=
if" hspace=3D"3" vspace=3D"2" height=3D"6" width=3D"6" alt=3D"*"> Politic=
s: The donation will help build a new headquarters as party lawmakers pus=
h to limit such contributions.<BR><BR></SPAN>
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if" width=3D"4" height=3D"1"></TD>
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=
<table border=3D"0" width=3D"100%" cellpadding=3D"1" cellspacing=3D"0"><t=
r><td bgcolor=3D"#F2E7BA" align=3D"left"><span class=3D"relatedmenu"><b>&=
nbsp;
Times Headlines
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ld/nation/la-000020112mar19.story?coll=3Dla%2Dheadlines%2Dnation">Democra=
ts Get Record Gift of 'Soft Money' They Oppose</a><br></TD></TR>
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By NICK ANDERSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER<BR><BR>
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WASHINGTON --
=
While Democrats launched a final push Monday for legislation to limit th=
e influence of big-money donors, party officials said one contributor has=
given several million dollars this year to help build a national Democra=
tic headquarters.<BR><BR>The gift, when confirmed in federal disclosure r=
eports due to become public next month, will apparently be the largest of=
the past decade to either of the major national parties.<BR><BR><table a=
lign=3D"left" width=3D"315" border=3D"0" cellpadding=3D"0" cellspacing=3D=
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</table>In an interview Monday, Democratic National Committee chairman Te=
rry McAuliffe declined to name the donor or specify the amount, saying th=
at a report will make the information public soon. No other details about=
the gift could be independently confirmed. But party officials made clea=
r that the size of the donation, which is part of a $32-million fund-rais=
ing drive for the headquarters, will set a record.<BR><BR>Details about D=
emocratic fund-raising for a new headquarters are emerging as Congress ne=
ars approval of legislation that would prohibit this type of drive.<BR><B=
R>The campaign finance bill now before Congress targets the unlimited don=
ations to political parties known as "soft money." These donations are of=
ten made in six- or even seven-figure sums.<BR><BR>This fall's campaign w=
ould be the last in which national party leaders and federal officeholder=
s or candidates will be able to call on major donors--including wealthy i=
ndividuals, corporations and labor unions--for such contributions.<BR><BR=
In the future, the parties will be forced to raise money in much smaller=
chunks from a broader base of contributors. The campaign finance bill wo=
uld take these and other steps to overhaul federal election law for the f=
irst time in nearly 30 years.<BR><BR>On Monday, the Senate began debate o=
n the legislation, which passed the House on a 240-189 vote last month an=
d is expected to come to a final vote this week.<BR><BR>The Senate approv=
ed an earlier version last April on a 59-41 vote but must vote again beca=
use of House amendments to that bill. In both chambers, most Democrats jo=
ined with a splinter group of dissident Republicans in support of reform.=
GOP congressional leaders strongly oppose the legislation, calling it an=
unconstitutional infringement on free speech and an unnecessary barrier =
to building strong political parties.<BR><BR>Barring a major surprise, th=
e Senate is expected to vote to send the bill to President Bush for his s=
ignature or veto, and White House aides have signaled that Bush will prob=
ably sign it.<BR><BR>In a further sign that obstacles to campaign finance=
reform are falling away, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), for years the leg=
islation's leading opponent, said the Senate could move swiftly toward fi=
nal passage beginning as early as today.<BR><BR>'We Find It Hypocritical,=
' GOP Says<BR><BR>Proponents launched the Senate debate Monday with a sti=
nging blast at soft money--a form of political fund-raising that they cla=
im has undermined public confidence in good government.<BR><BR>"When we w=
eigh the pros and cons of legislation, many people think we also weigh th=
e size of the contributions we got from interests on both sides of the is=
sue," said Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), a chief sponsor of the bill=
=2E "And when those contributions can be a million dollars, or even more,=
it seems obvious to most people that we would reward, or at least listen=
especially carefully to, our biggest donors."<BR><BR>Republican critics =
say the Democrats' collection of soft money for a new headquarters underc=
uts their credibility.<BR><BR>"We find it hypocritical," said Kevin Sheri=
dan, spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "They're out there =
as the vanquishers of soft money and its 'corrupting influence' on politi=
cs. So what are they doing right now? They're out there shaking down ever=
y large donor they can find, every corporation . . . to permanently build=
a monument to their hypocrisy."<BR><BR>McAuliffe, dismissing GOP critici=
sm, said the new headquarters and upgrades in technology would help Democ=
rats erase tactical advantages that Republicans have.<BR><BR>"I have to t=
hink of where we are as a party 25 years from today," he said in an inter=
view in his office on South Capitol Street. "This will be the last chance=
we ever will be able to afford a new national headquarters or new techno=
logy."<BR><BR>In fact, both parties have been raising soft money at a fur=
ious pace as the likelihood has grown that Congress would move to ban it.=
In 2001, Federal Election Commission data show, Republicans raised $100 =
million in soft money, up 67% from what they collected in 1999 and 149% f=
rom their 1997 total.<BR><BR>Democrats, meanwhile, raised $68 million in =
soft money last year--up 26% from 1999 and double the amount they receive=
d in 1997.<BR><BR>The largest single donation to a national party since 1=
992 was Amway Corp.'s $1.7 million for a Republican committee in October =
1994, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent org=
anization in Washington that tracks federal election data.<BR><BR>Late la=
st year, two other donors gave $1 million each for the new Democratic hea=
dquarters: media executive Fred Eychaner of Chicago and the United Assn. =
of Journeymen, a plumbers' trade union.<BR><BR>A major focus for McAuliff=
e, who became DNC chairman just over a year ago, has been to move the par=
ty into a newer, larger headquarters--outfitted with television and radio=
equipment and other high-tech gear to help the party reach out to donors=
and activists.<BR><BR>McAuliffe says he is trying to catch up to Republi=
cans, who for years have invested in office space, computers and other eq=
uipment to help the party manage its operations in Washington and reach c=
ore supporters across the country.<BR><BR>In Time for Next Presidential C=
ampaign<BR><BR>The Democratic plans call for a 95,000-square-foot, six-st=
ory building on E Street in southwest Washington, not far from the Capito=
l--nearly double the 55,000 square feet the party currently occupies.<BR>=
<BR>Party officials say they have collected most of the $23-million cost =
of the building and are raising an additional $9 million to furnish and e=
quip it. Groundbreaking is expected by summer, and the party hopes to occ=
upy the building by late 2003--just before the next presidential campaign=
swings into high gear.<BR><BR>The new headquarters would help the party =
comply with the campaign finance legislation if it becomes law, McAuliffe=
said, by giving Democrats more space and resources to raise the smaller =
donations from a wider group of supporters. Those donations would be subj=
ect to limits of $2,000 per individual per election under the bill. Raisi=
ng these smaller amounts is labor-intensive, political pros say.<BR><BR>I=
n pushing the headquarters project, McAuliffe has the full backing of suc=
h top Democrats as Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and House =
Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.). Former President Clinton and=
his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), have also given their su=
pport.<BR><BR>Party officials say a small group of a dozen or so big dono=
rs is spearheading the headquarters campaign.<BR><BR>Haim Saban,, an ente=
rtainment industry executive from Los Angeles, is its chairman. Democrati=
c officials insist that money raised for the headquarters will not siphon=
resources from this year's Democratic campaigns to retake the House and =
maintain a slim Senate majority.
</div><BR>
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- --------------276182B7C9597FD0DDA09151--
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 13:58:12 -0700
From: jjohnsto <jjohnsto@UALBERTA.CA>
Subject: Counting the votes under the Instant Runoff Voting system
I have followed the exchanges regarding the adoption of IRV for local
elections in San Francisco and the available procedures and technology for
counting the votes under that system with some interest. While I am not
personally aware of any computerized technology for tallying the votes,
programming such software should not really provide that much of a problem in
itself, especially in cases where IRV [previously and traditionally known as
the "alternative vote' (AV)]is applied to filling a single position. The vote
transfer process there is quite straightforward and does not necessitate any
"vote selection" and/or "weighting"
problem as happens when several persons are to be chosen such the members of a
city council or school board elected at large or from multi-member wards.
The procedure applied in the latter context is generally known as the "single
transferable vote" system/procedure [STV], although that label should actually
apply to both instances since a single ballot is marked that is transferred
from one candidate to another in the counting process depending on the outcome
at the previous stage in what is typically a multi-stage process. Transferring
votes under STV in multi-seat elections can become rather complicated, since
one has two contexts in which such a transfer can take place. One involves the
same circumstances as apply in single-seat IRV situations where the lowest
candidate at the latest stage is dropped and that persons votes are
transferred to the next lower choice indicated on those ballots under some
candidate amasses a simple majority of the ballots still active in the
counting process. It is thus a "majoritarian" decision rule and process, and
in most instances the outcome does not differ from what would have been under
a plurality system such as that previously used in San Francisco. However,
getting elected under in multi-seat elections under STV involves attaining a
certain quota of votes and when a given candidate surpasses that quota and is
declared elected, the "surplus" of votes he or she attains above the quota is
also re-distributed according to the "second" or "further" choices marked on
the ballots. If there are surplusses to be redistributed, that action takes
precedence over dropping the candidate with the fewest votes and who that
person might be at any stage can thus be affected by the outcome of the
transfer of the surplus. The matter is further complicated by the fact that
there have been a number of different procedures used to accomplish the
transfer of "surplus" votes. Some procedures transfer the last "N - quota"
votes counted for the candidate declared to have been elected. Others draw a
"sample" of votes equal to that number from all of the votes tallied for the
elected candidate and a wide variety of "sampling" techniques have been used
to select those ballots which, of course, are then transferred to the next
indicated choice in "full vote" measure. Perhaps the fairest and most
"representative" approach is to count the "second" or "next further" choices
on all the ballots received by the candidate declared elected and then prorate
their transfer to other candidates still in the running by a weight reflecting
the ratio of the size of the surplus vote gained by the elected candidate to
the total number of votes that person attained. Nicolaus Tideman [from VPI]
and his co-author discuss the merits of four different ways to carry out this
process and improve on it in a piece included in the edited volume, Elections
in Australia, Ireland, and Malta under the Single Transferable Vote, edited by
Shaun Bowler and Bernard Grofman [University of Michigan Press, 2000]. All the
procedures he considers are at least in principle amenable to computerization.
Returning to the use of IRV in San Francisco for single-office elections,
there is one complication that may hinder efficient tallying of the votes. It
is that all the ballots would need to be brought [or sent electronically] to a
common location and counted there, rather than being counted locally in the
polling divisions or wards and then combined to get the final outcome. Often,
election officials prefer to take advantage of the personnel working at the
local polls to do a first count and then tally those sub-totals at the central
election HQ. If this were done under IRV, different candidates might be
dropped at any particular stage in different polls/wards, leading to an
invalid result when those results were cumulated for the entire city. In
logistical terms, this requirement could prove a costly and delaying obstacle
to getting a prompt final tally. Beyond that, however, I see no reason why
software could not be written that would produce an appropriate, valied tally
in an efficient -- and cost-efficient -- fashion.
J. Paul Johnston
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Canada
email: j.p.johnston@ualberta.ca
------------------------------
End of election-law_gl-digest V1 #167
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