Question

Which electoral systems do you believe is the best for the US? What are some of the strength of the other systems, and what are some of the weaknesses? Should the US modify its electoral processes?

Answer 1

• Historically, Americans have been innovators in the design of electoral systems. In its day, the Electoral College was an impressive innovation. Several vote counting methods, including Cumulative Voting, Bucklin Voting and Coombs' Method originated in the United States. Today, the U.S. is less innovative nationally, but there is much diversity in the electoral systems in use in state and local jurisdictions.  
• Used to elect the U.S. House Representatives, as well as many state and local legislatures, plurality is the most common and best-known electoral system currently in use in America. Under the plurality system, an area is divided into a number of geographically defined voting districts, each represented by a single elected official. Voters cast a single vote for their district’s representative, with the highest total vote-getter winning election, even if he or she has received less than half of the vote.
• There are two main weaknesses in the plurality system:-
• First, where the boundaries of districts are drawn can have a huge effect on who is likely to win election. As a result, gerrymandering to protect incumbents or weaken political enemies is common practice under plurality rules. This is a problem inherent in any single-winner system.
• Second, plurality elections are prone to the spoiler effect. Where three or more viable candidates run and split the vote within a district, the “winner” of an election can often be the candidate whom the majority of voters liked least.
• This characteristic of plurality elections leads to a further problem. In order to prevent the spoiler effect from negatively impacting their chances, political parties will limit the number of candidates running. This in turn leaves voters with no effective choice as elections often involve voters merely ratifying the candidate chosen by the majority party (typically at a low turnout primary) in their district.
• Advantages of the plurality system are that it is easily understood by voters, provides a quick decision, and is more convenient and less costly to operate than other methods.
  
• The plurality method operates best under a two-party system.
• An ideal election system should meet six basic principles:
• Every citizen has the chance to run for office
• Every adult citizen has the chance to cast their vote ("universal suffrage")
• All voters have sufficient information about the political agenda of the candidates.
• Votes are cast by secret ballot
• Every vote has equal weight
• The candidate with the majority of votes becomes president.
• The election process is clear and transparent
• Plurality voting (a.k.a. 'first past the post,' 'winner takes all') has got to go. It is a bad system that forces us into two opposing parties.
• There are lots of options for replacing it, and they all involve voting systems that aren't susceptible to vote splitting. These range from systems that have voters rank the candidates in order (such as Condorcet or Instant Runoff systems) to some clever new ones that allow voters to simply pick a single candidate as they do today, such as the SODA system that Jameson Quinn advocates.
• Simple Optionally-Delegated Approval (SODA voting) is a single-winner voting system based on approval voting. As in approval voting, voters get a ballot which lets them vote for as many or as few candidates as they like. They pull this off by giving the candidates themselves the responsibility of picking alternative choices, rather than forcing the voters to do this work.