Electoral Reform Debate - Commentary Thread

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

I do strongly disagree with Mr Clyde's concern about the partisan risk of districting, as someone who went through it as a Governor, the process is probably one of the least partisan things I ever went through. You're much more concerned about the balance of numbers, than who actually lives there. Because it's not an easy process and you actually don't want to spend all your time on this.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

The Aye side has claimed the At-large election results in boring, predictable outcome. That is not true. Over my time in Atlasia many At-large elections have ended in a couple of vote difference in determining the winner of the last seat. So they can be exciting. A few examples:

December 2012, less than 2 votes difference for the last seat
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=149059.msg3559661#msg3559661

April 2013, less than 2 votes
https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/April_2013_Senate_Election

December 2013, less than 3 votes
https://uselectionatlas.org/AFEWIKI/index.php/December_2013_Senate_Election

December 2014, 2 votes
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=149059.msg3559661#msg3559661

The At-large election gave a chance to candidates who were not able to win a regional race to get elected to the Senate, it gave them another path. Just by memory I think of Goldwater and Deus who lost a regional race in the NE before winning in At-large. Lumine and Cris in the Midwest.
   
A smaller party like the D-R has managed to win At-Large senate seat with Deus and shua. I'm not sure if they had their party members split in five districts if they could win a district against three much bigger parties.

If anything, district elections would probably give a perennial independent candidate such as yourself a much better chance than the multi-seat at-large where you're always at the mercy of positive preference flows.