WiserEarth Suggestions

The process by which elections are conducted is an area in which we can learn a lot from how our fledgling democracies have evolved over recent centuries. It is in the election and campaigning process that we can see the most egregious flaws emerge to pollute the ideals of representative democracy.

Between 30 days before the election date and the day of the election, all voters cast a vote that allows them to specify 1st and 2nd choices from the available candidates for a seat in the assembly. Candidates with sufficient 1st choice votes to qualify (by passing the quota defined as the half the total votes divided by the number of seats available; e.g. for a body with 7 representatives, at least 7% of the total votes) are duly elected, in order of the number of 1st choice votes received.
The votes for the lowest scoring, non-qualifying candidate are reassigned to those voters' 2nd choices until all representative positions are filled, using the same quota but accounting for both 1st and 2nd choices.
If there are remaining unfilled positions using the quota then those seats are left unfilled, so long as the minimum representative quantity of 3 has been met. If the minimum number of 3 is not met then further elections must be held again one month later and then every three months.
The remaining votes for unqualified candidiates are assigned to their 2nd choice candidiates, if those candidates have been elected.

This is effectively proportional representation using the Single Transferable Vote system with a Hare quota, except that candidates are not completing for a single available seat.

Government must represent the people it is elected to organize. Those people have different options and perspectives and so the election system for respresentitives must reflect that variety in the results it produces.

What follows a description of the LIFE PR voting system. The thing to keep in mind as you read through this, is that the objectives are:

• to have the people's wishes carried out through representatives who represent the spectrum of the citizenry.
• it is important that the majority is not held hostage by small minorities, whilst allowing minorities a voice
• it is important that the government can be decisive at the same time that it is inclusive

The LIFE PR system achieves all this and is very similar to voting systems used around the world today, with one important exception: no election is ever for one individual representative. Elections elect a council of representatives who sit in an assembly together, and they all stand for election by all of their constituents.

Big Ballot issues

In LIFE PR elections, all candidates for a constituency stand for election before all of the voters of that constituency. As can be seen in the examples provided, there will be situations , particularly at the Region level, where the number of available seats is in the hundreds and therefore so will the candidates list be in the hundreds.
This will mean that voters will be asked to select a first and second choice from a list of hundreds of candidates, and this presents a couple of issues that are not barriers to implementation but do raise certain practical issues.