Electoral plans

So we’re gonna do the elections differently in 2008. I’ve been thinking about it. I have a plan.

We’re not going to vote for candidates. We’re going to vote for parties. You’ll cast one vote for a party, and you’ll be done. That will simplify things. Every party puts together a list of candidates, with their top candidate at the top and so on. Individuals can run too, but as you’ll see in a moment, it’s not a very good idea.

After everyone votes, we’ll total up the votes. X% of the people on each party’s list will be elected to Congress, where X% is the percentage of the total vote going to that party. So if 55% of the people vote Democratic, then 55% of Congress will be Democrats. Easy and simple. See why it’s bad for an individual to run? If you vote for an individual, then you’re only voting for one person and you have no say in the rest of Congress. Better to vote for a party.

This is not a parable.