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This article is deeply flawed in everything from the premise to all of the proposed solutions. Compulsory voting, electronic voting (online or otherwise), aboli

by chungy 9y ago

This article is deeply flawed in everything from the premise to all of the proposed solutions. Compulsory voting, electronic voting (online or otherwise), abolishing the electoral college are all fundamentally terrible ideas that pose direct threats to the integrity of a democracy. Not to mention that the United States _is not_ a democracy and never has been: it is a representative republic and that is an extremely important distinction. It's sorry to say but the article reads like it was written by somebody without the slightest clue about how elections work.

pjc50 9y ago
> Compulsory voting, (...) abolishing the electoral college are all fundamentally terrible ideas that pose direct threats to the integrity of a democracy Why? The electoral college is a pretty uniquely American institution, and Australia seem to manage OK with compulsory voting? > Not to mention that the United States _is not_ a democracy Well then how can they be a threat to the integrity of it?
- mentalpiracy 9y ago
  Australia does manage fine with compulsory voting, however, they operate on a parliamentary system of proportional vote distribution. America might be fine without the electoral college, but we would need to alter our first-past-the-post system.
  - lambertsimnel 9y ago
    Please note that Australia's use of proportional representation is only in senatorial and state elections. The elections that determine who gets to form a federal government (Australian House of Representatives elections) are held under the non-proportional majority-preferential system (instant-runoff voting). The US could abolish the electoral college without replacing the first-past-the-post system (assuming by that you mean single-winner plurality voting): https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation I'd like the US to both abolish the electoral college and adopt a different voting system for presidential elections. Actually, I consider the voting system used for the Australian House of Representatives more suitable for presidential elections than for parliamentary elections.
antientropic 9y ago
> Not to mention that the United States _is not_ a democracy and never has been: it is a representative republic and that is an extremely important distinction. That's not an important distinction - it's misguided pedantry. The US is a republic and a (representative) democracy. Those terms are not mutually exclusive.
lagadu 9y ago
You're incorrect about what a democracy and a republic are. The US is both. A republic is a system where each head of state is chosen by the people in some form, not necessarily by voting (res - of, publica - public). Contrast with Monarchy. A Democracy is a system where the goverment's decision process is based on the population that it serves (demo - the people as in "demographics", cratia - to govern), this is determined by voting so decisions can be made according to the majority. In the particular case of modern democracies, because of the unyieldiness of having the whole population vote on every measure, we use what's called a representative democracy, where we choose someone to represent via voting us when deciding something. Contrast with dictatorship.

by chungy 9y ago

pjc50 9y ago

> Compulsory voting, (...) abolishing the electoral college are all fundamentally terrible ideas that pose direct threats to the integrity of a democracy Why? The electoral college is a pretty uniquely American institution, and Australia seem to manage OK with compulsory voting? > Not to mention that the United States _is not_ a democracy Well then how can they be a threat to the integrity of it?

mentalpiracy 9y ago
Australia does manage fine with compulsory voting, however, they operate on a parliamentary system of proportional vote distribution. America might be fine without the electoral college, but we would need to alter our first-past-the-post system.
- lambertsimnel 9y ago
  Please note that Australia's use of proportional representation is only in senatorial and state elections. The elections that determine who gets to form a federal government (Australian House of Representatives elections) are held under the non-proportional majority-preferential system (instant-runoff voting). The US could abolish the electoral college without replacing the first-past-the-post system (assuming by that you mean single-winner plurality voting): https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation I'd like the US to both abolish the electoral college and adopt a different voting system for presidential elections. Actually, I consider the voting system used for the Australian House of Representatives more suitable for presidential elections than for parliamentary elections.

antientropic 9y ago

> Not to mention that the United States _is not_ a democracy and never has been: it is a representative republic and that is an extremely important distinction. That's not an important distinction - it's misguided pedantry. The US is a republic and a (representative) democracy. Those terms are not mutually exclusive.

lagadu 9y ago

You're incorrect about what a democracy and a republic are. The US is both. A republic is a system where each head of state is chosen by the people in some form, not necessarily by voting (res - of, publica - public). Contrast with Monarchy. A Democracy is a system where the goverment's decision process is based on the population that it serves (demo - the people as in "demographics", cratia - to govern), this is determined by voting so decisions can be made according to the majority. In the particular case of modern democracies, because of the unyieldiness of having the whole population vote on every measure, we use what's called a representative democracy, where we choose someone to represent via voting us when deciding something. Contrast with dictatorship.