fordy said:
Mr Khan said:
under the American system, it is throwing away your vote. If there are 5 candidates, with one getting 23%, three getting 20%, and one getting 17%, Mr. 23 gets all the marbles, and the votes of 77% of the population are rendered utterly meaningless. So it is natural that we try to accumulate as broad of political parties as possible, leading to our milquetoast Right-wing and Left-wing parties, because you need a candidate with as broad appeal as possible, for fear that the other guy is slightly more popular.
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That being said, is there a reason why preferential voting is NOT being used? Is it because the major parties in power wont vote it in because it essentially gives minor parties more leverage?
It would reflect who voters want a lot more, because there would be no fear of voting for a minority and wasting your vote in the sense that your second preference (one of the major parties, perhaps) could need that vote.
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It would certainly benefit America to set up a "majority rule" for federal elections, where runoffs are held if any candidate cannot get at least 50% of the vote, and make the Electoral College into proportional representation (which would again open the entire country up to campaigning, and not just Ohio, Florida, Missouri, Colorado, and Oregon), though straight PR would not work
