4 ms·

Problem is that with first past the post voting, you end up giving your vote to the 2nd of the two primary parties. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJf

Problem is that with first past the post voting, you end up giving your vote to the 2nd of the two primary parties. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo

tokenadult 14y ago
Problem is that with first past the post voting, you end up giving your vote to the 2nd of the two primary parties. This is not an invariant property of the United States electoral system. Minnesota http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura and Maine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_King http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_King have both elected governors not endorsed by either of the two largest political parties in recent years, and there are members of the United States Senate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Senators#cite_note-0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_S... who were elected in statewide elections without major party endorsement.
- chimeracoder 14y ago
  Maine is one of the few states where that's viable - as Nate Silver notes[1], it's probably the most independent-leaning state in the nation, as evidenced by its support for Ross Perot in the 90s. Rhode Island would be another, and I'd peg Colorado as a distant third. Minnesota is an outlier in my mind - it's more attributable to the fact that the Republican candidate (Norm Coleman) was a terrible candidate (he only won his Senate seat because his opponent died right before the election[2]), and the race was irregular in other ways too. It happened once, but I wouldn't bet on it happening again there anytime soon, unless things change. [1] http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/in-maine-independent-streak-complicates-political-landscape/ http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/in-maine... [2] To Coleman's credit, John Ashcroft ran against a dead man and lost, so I guess Coleman had something going for him.
  - derleth 14y ago
    > John Ashcroft ran against a dead man and lost He lost to the dead man's wife, who the voters knew would take that seat even if the ballots couldn't be reprinted in time.
- aswanson 14y ago
  Those states probably have a much higher educational attainment level, civic engagement/consciousness and intelligence level than the rest of the United States.
- newman314 14y ago
  They did not have to contend with having to vie for the vote of 300+ million people. Also, elections for governor do not have to account for the Electoral College which IMO is an anarchic holdover from a time when communication was much harder.

tokenadult 14y ago

Problem is that with first past the post voting, you end up giving your vote to the 2nd of the two primary parties. This is not an invariant property of the United States electoral system. Minnesota http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Ventura and Maine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_King http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_King have both elected governors not endorsed by either of the two largest political parties in recent years, and there are members of the United States Senate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_Senators#cite_note-0 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_United_States_S... who were elected in statewide elections without major party endorsement.

chimeracoder 14y ago
Maine is one of the few states where that's viable - as Nate Silver notes[1], it's probably the most independent-leaning state in the nation, as evidenced by its support for Ross Perot in the 90s. Rhode Island would be another, and I'd peg Colorado as a distant third. Minnesota is an outlier in my mind - it's more attributable to the fact that the Republican candidate (Norm Coleman) was a terrible candidate (he only won his Senate seat because his opponent died right before the election[2]), and the race was irregular in other ways too. It happened once, but I wouldn't bet on it happening again there anytime soon, unless things change. [1] http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/in-maine-independent-streak-complicates-political-landscape/ http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/in-maine... [2] To Coleman's credit, John Ashcroft ran against a dead man and lost, so I guess Coleman had something going for him.
- derleth 14y ago
  > John Ashcroft ran against a dead man and lost He lost to the dead man's wife, who the voters knew would take that seat even if the ballots couldn't be reprinted in time.
aswanson 14y ago
Those states probably have a much higher educational attainment level, civic engagement/consciousness and intelligence level than the rest of the United States.
newman314 14y ago
They did not have to contend with having to vie for the vote of 300+ million people. Also, elections for governor do not have to account for the Electoral College which IMO is an anarchic holdover from a time when communication was much harder.