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What precautions do you think we should take when tabulating the votes? Should any of it be electronic or should it all be hand counted? I personally think that we should use a scan-tron paper ballot. Once scanned in, a unique ID should be printed on the ballot and an electronic record of the ballot...

Or, what if instead of making them soldiers, we made them slaves that got enjoyment out of serving us? Let's say we have some kind of universal basic income for everyone else so they are happy. It would be their nature to want to serve us and if there were some defect in which they didn't want to s...

If you could genetically engineer soldiers that don't care about their own lives or anything other than following orders within a moral framework (They won't commit war crimes), would this be immoral? If they enjoy following orders and they don't feel any kind of discomfort, then what would be the h...

Another option in Canada's case would be to elect one house based on proportional voting and the other house based on local representatives. Of course that would require a constitutional amendment, so fat chance of that happening anytime soon. They could always do a parallel system. Elect half the ...

Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef has outlined 8 principles for Electoral reform in Canada : 1) Canadians should believe that their intentions as voters are fairly translated into elections results, without (the) significant distortion that often characterizes elections conducted und...

Sounds like Kasich is hinting he may hang on until the convention, like Sanders, despite his commanding lack of delegates? I smell a potential angling towards VP or cabinet... I think Kasich actually has a good chance to win in a brokered convention - especially if it turns out Cruz was having an a...

Bernie stumbled on the Castro and Sandinista question, but I thought he did, really, really well.

In Force Awakens, we hear Ren saying that he is being temped by the light side of the force so I guess there is some evidence. Ok, the spoiler tag either isn't working or I am just doing it wrong. I'm guessing it is the latter, but I have no idea what I could be doing to screw it up. In the other f...

Wild Zontargs wrote:Well, a Liberal majority isn't my first choice, but if they can end the War on Weed and kill first-past-the-post, I'll be fairly happy.

I really, really hope Trudeau doesn't renege on his promise to abolish FPTP.

I also hope he looks into other voting systems than IRV to replace it.

The current Liberal party platform is to move away from first past the post elections with them being open to a number of differenct systems but a preference towards preferential ballots. They're not for any system that breaks the process by which an MPs are no longer selected by individual ridings...

Their is no Labor Party here, or at least none of any significance (I suppose its possible that there's a Labor Party so small I don't know about them). I actually meant Liberal. I do know that much about Canada. It is really sad if the Liberal Party can't at least form coalition with the NDP to ge...

Non-Canadian here. So, what are the chances that Labor and NDP will form a coalition to get rid of first-past-the-post? Supposedly they are both against it and want voting reform.

Better, we should just use approval voting and do away with primaries entirely. I agree that would be a step up. I don't know if that would be better than having a non-partisan primary though. It should be kept simple and less burdensome for the voter as possible – that is why I support approval vo...

Its the party choosing who it wants to represent it in the actual election for the office, it'd make sense that only members of the party can vote, otherwise it'd just be a very slow runoff style election, which admittedly might not be a bad thing. We also tend to be a bit...over-fond of elections ...

It is so ridiculous that there are 17 candidates in the primary and a ballot only allows Republican voters to express an opinion on one of the candidates. How can anyone possibly think the results would represent the will of the voters?

I love SGU, but I could take or leave Rebecca. Maybe it is because I don't read skepchick so I don't have that prejudice, but I don't see why her participation on the show was that objectionable. The whole elevatorgate 'scandal' was a really stupid thing to get upset over. I probably shouldn't be ju...

The dude claimed the kid on a government form as his child. Therefore, he's the father. You don't like it? Next time don't help someone attempt to defraud the system. It is not entirely clear that he did claim that though. It is just according to one anonymous witness. If it is true though, it does...

But it's like 2nd term president - if you have no one who can decide on a set of reliable candidates, you might have a number of weasels that jump ship after vote for richer backers and you suddenly find yourself without majority. Isn't that basically how it is now? That is Obama 101. It would be a...

There is excellent video how 20% of the US population can elect a president other 80% opposes. Your system makes for even more crooked lack of representation with tiny % of population having total control. The Senate already allows for a tiny minority of the the population to obstruct the nominatio...

How you discipline people who stop voting like promised the instant they are elected then? Don't reelect them or allow for recalls to get them out. Can you say "conflict of interest"? Or "no clear direction"? Why is that? Why would there be a conflict of interest if a candidate ...

I don't really have any particular problem with the way political parties are structured. I think the problems with our political system are more or less inevitably consequences of the way Congress and the electoral system is constructed, and problems with the parties are more a byproduct of those ...

Your post is about a good 2/5ths regarding the way Congress works. That's more a matter of governmental structure rather than politics; it doesn't really matter what party is in power, that's the way it's set up anyway. As for parties. They essentially function to be a mouthpiece for segments of th...

I really don't like how parties function and I don't like the way the system is built around them. I hate that the US congress is set up so that it is so important for a single party to get a majority and it just becomes about the two parties trying to undermine the other instead of doing what is be...

During this last election I voted on whether quite a few state and local judges should be retained in office. IIRC they are appointed to their position but the voters have the power to remove them, which is pretty difficult because most voters don't bother to do even a little bit of research about ...

See, if you want the states to work this way, you basically have to tell them to do so. Who can tell them? The federal government. You can't get away from that. It's either a Constitutional amendment, where IIRC 2/3's or 3/4's (can't remember which) of the states have to approve it via referendum o...