Yes, I know it is not much, but a mouse can scare an elephant, right? Translation: this will make our representatives pay more attention to the voters. The voters are strengthened. And that will reverberate throughout the entire system we find ourselves in.
Two levels of being manipulated is better than three levels of being manipulated, right? It will improve the local government immediately, and the best part is that this will trickle up.
It’s a small door, but there is only a benefit to be had.
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When we are not divided, then we can vote freely from a good range of options.
When we are divided first, then we can vote freely from number one and number two.
Can I tell the story with ten dollars in your hand, going to the district store with six options but realistically only two — and one of these two that you end up getting?
You may indeed get the one you want, but your choice was limited beforehand, and the others in your district may even prevent you from getting the one you picked from the few options.
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Then, in Proportional Voting, you still have $10, but instead of going to the district store, you go to the store that everyone is going to.
In that store, there are 40 items for ten dollars, and let's say that just ten items will be bought by all voters combined. [Ten seats on the council.]
You will walk around the store probably twice, maybe three times, and you quickly see which items you don't like, and let's say that there are three or four that you want to spend your ten dollars on.
Then you pick your one item from the few you liked. Then, after you paid you either get that item or you get something that is very similar to the item you wanted.
So, in Proportional Voting you always get either the one you picked or the second best based on your one choice. You never walk away with getting the one that others picked and that you dislike, as we can now in district voting.
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In numbers, for ten seats on the council:
District Voting: 50 percent plus one vote declares the winner. This number is always 50 percent plus one vote, no matter the number of seats.
Proportional Voting: 90.9 percent of the voters are guaranteed they get the one they wanted or their second-best when there are ten seats in total.
There is therefore no domination included beforehand in Proportional Voting. All voters are each other's equals while voting and in the results -- period. The majority decision on the council represents the majority of the voters.
Let's look at the minimum numbers. To pass a decision, we need 6 out of 10 council members voting for it.
.6 x .5 = .3
.6 x .909 = .5454
These are the minimum numbers for a council with ten seats with both systems shown next to each other. The end percentage declares the number of voters represented by the council decision.
Our current system makes (often) a minority decision, the other system makes a majority decision, always. Both systems say they are majority decisions. One system is lying.
At the City level, this district voting is not allowed, says the US Constitution.
I wish there were easier ways to say it, but the truth about district voting is hidden under a layer of veneer and it is tough to scrape it off in one easy swoop.
The elite (financial, political, any which way you want to think about the elite) benefits when the seats of power are not the actual representatives of all voters, but just the winners of districts. They can get their hands on these winners far more easily than when the representatives actually represent all voters.
