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Out of all the elected officials who have the power to help change the voting system, how many benefit from the current voting system (first past the post)? All
by aaron_m04 8y ago
Out of all the elected officials who have the power to help change the voting system, how many benefit from the current voting system (first past the post)? All of them, right?
- mikeash 8y agoIt is possible to get politicians to make changes to things that benefit them. It's hard, it takes a lot of pressure and a lot of work, but it can be done. Keep in mind that our system has changed a great deal already (e.g. women and non-whites being allowed to vote), the politicians at the time benefitted greatly from how things were set up before, but those changes were still accomplished. We shouldn't give up on the idea of reform just because politicians would resist it.
- aaron_m04 8y agoThanks, that gives me hope.
- dragonwriter 8y ago> Out of all the elected officials who have the power to help change the voting system Elected officials are initially largely irrelevant, changes to the voting system will start with state-level voter initiatives. Pretty much everything worth doing to voting systems aside from (1) replacing or reforming the electoral college, and (2) moving away from mandatory single-member districts in the House of Representatives, can be done entirely there in many states without elected officials being involved except in their ministerial role in certifying the results and implementing the dictated policies.
- aaron_m04 8y agoThanks. Both #1 and #2 require a constitutional amendment, right?
- dragonwriter 8y ago#2 can be done with statute; the ban on other arrangements is statutory. For #1, some reforms could be done by way of legislation (e.g., changes to the safe harbor legislation for electoral votes), or coordinated state action (like the current national popular vote effort, which leaves the EC formally in place but relies on states coordinating assignment of electors).