Foreword
The rank-and-file who supported the president in 2020 were baffled and angered at being ignored by the GOP elite, who abandoned the president in the aftermath of the bizarre election. Part of the rank-and-file remains loyal to the GOP, while another segment wishes for the emergence of a populist party. We believe that both segments would be open to the emergence of a ‘benign’ populist party, one that operates at the local level, and does not threaten the viability of the GOP.
Now is the most timely moment in history to introduce a system that will allow the election of populist candidates.
Range voting is such a system. Also known as “score” voting, the system allows the voter to give scores to each candidate on the ballot, thus allowing the public, at election time, to demonstrate their preferences on the various issues of the day.
“A New Political Device” is the summary of a plan to expand a populist party, beginning in regions of the country that are solidly conservative. This will be a benign party that does not hold primaries, does not cannibalize primary voters from the region’s Republican party, and does not act as a ‘vote splitter’ by stealing votes during the main election. The new party will eventually become a threat to establishment politicians at the federal level, without causing major disruptions to the politics of the local region in which it operates.
The new party will sidestep the need to hold primaries by virtue of the ability to use petition signatures to get their candidates on the ballot.
The plan is a two-step process: first, establish range voting in the county via ballot initiative; then in the next election run populist candidates for one or more positions.
Range voting has characteristics that appeal to human nature, and it would spread quickly after being introduced in only one county. Our hope is to speed the process further by starting in dozens of counties simultaneously. This goal would be possible if we are able to partner with an established organization, such as an existing third party or an evangelical group.
In order to gain a wide audience, we will be prepared to address issues of importance to groups that are not solidly conservative: soccer moms, the elderly, Christians, and others.
The following summary is a general description of strategy, and of how the project will be presented to the public. Tactical details will be addressed in future presentations.
If the reader is unfamiliar with the differences between ‘Range voting’ and ‘ranked-choice’ voting, see Addendum 2 at the end of this article.
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A New Political Device Pg.1(of 4)
This new election system will enable the election of third party candidates, and also charismatic individuals not affiliated with any party.
The new system is capable of beginning at the local level, then progressing upward…hence, much easier to implement than are current initiatives that are more top down, and require constitutional amendments.
Moreover, this locally-implemented system has a certain appeal to human nature that will make it spread quickly. And the characteristics of the system are such that it will have an almost immediate effect on the dynamics of politics in the community.
Suppose, for example, that you support the creation of a populist party, in response to the events of the 2020 election cycle. (or, your issue could be term limits, school choice, etc.) At election time, a door knocker who has views similar to your own may visit your home. There may even be a populist candidate running in your district: he or she may personally come to your door to ask for your support.
But, you don’t want to throw your vote away on a candidate who has no chance. You lean toward one of the two major parties, and don’t want to chance the opposing party coming into power. Also, this populist guy seems new to politics and seems like kind of a lightweight; you don’t know how good at governing he would be; he seems a little uninformed on some of the other issues of the day.
Occasionally a one-issue candidate will arise who does seem well versed on the issues of the day, and seems very competent. However, even a good one-issue candidate will not garner a big enough percentage of the vote to be a significant presence in the political arena.
This is the thing all disaffected groups in America share: All of them wish they could vote for their guy without throwing their vote away.
But, what if you could vote for more than one candidate? There is in fact a system like this, that has been used in other countries and even parts of America: Range Voting. Under this system you could give your main vote to the major party candidate of your choice, and also give a fraction of a vote, say .9 or .8, to the guy you really want. (and to other candidates, as well)
And what if your populist guy seems like a really competent candidate, well versed on all the issues, great speaker, great organizational capabilities? Furthermore, he reassures you that he will “caucus with the Republicans” (or other major party) so that you will still be well represented. Well…you could even give him a full 1.0 vote, right along with the major-party candidate!
Let’s say that this is the first election year that range voting has been tried in your district. What would the results look like? Well, the major-party candidate likely would still be the winner…but, the dark horse candidate would also get significant percentage of votes. What would the effect of this phenomenon be, on the politics of the area?
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Effects of the first RV election. Pg.2(of 4)
Given the volatile and historic nature of our times, it is entirely possible that the first RV election could be a historic populist win. Nevertheless, we will examine a more mundane outcome for the debut of RV. This is because our purpose is to demonstrate that even a mediocre performance by the first range voting election would be a headline-grabbing, historical event.
Let’s say the major candidate won the election with 110,000 votes, and your guy got 37,000 votes.
The populist concept will get immediate and widespread attention.
Populist supporters in your district will become a cohesive group with high morale; everyone now realizes there are thousands of like-minded people in the district.
The major-party candidate who won will realize the popularity of populism and will give serious thought to incorporating elements of it into the policies of his administration.
More donor money will become available…more and better populist candidates will consider running in the next election.
In following elections populist candidates will get a larger percentage of the vote.
Smear campaigns against your guy by mainstream politicians will become ineffective. Millions of dollars spent will accomplish nothing more than lowering your guy’s percentage of a handful of votes from .9 down to .8. In the past, with only one vote allowed, the smear campaign would have frightened away voters who didn’t want to “throw away their vote”. Some voters may even be angered by the smear campaign, and in retaliation give their guy a larger vote instead of a smaller one.
In the span of 2 elections, your populist concept has become the nucleus of a third party. That is because people are now voting for an idea, not a candidate. Ideas are very powerful, and outlive any specific candidate. The populist concept has now sprouted legs.
Furthermore, even one-issue candidates whose one issue seems relatively minor (i.e. School Choice) will have a presence at election time. Voting will be fun…the bad old days of only two candidates will go the way of the dinosaur.
Range voting is a system that could allow Christians back into the public square in America, an arena from which they have been banished over the decades, by court rulings and legislation. The current two-party system is not conducive to morality, and it allows the encroaching decadence of our country to proceed at a steady pace. We envision an America which, as the founders intended, consists of diverse regions that are laboratories for improvements in society. Over the decades, the best ideas would win out.
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In summary: Pg.3(of 4)
–Range voting is easily implemented at the local level
–RV gives your issue a certain permanence, that allows it to remain in the public square until such time as it can flourish.
–RV could create an arena in which ideas can compete, with the best ones winning out over time.
–RV allows your issue to attract donors and good candidates, who otherwise would feel that their efforts were being wasted.
–RV allows third parties to flourish, as well as competent individuals not associated with any party.
–RV makes voting fun, and will spread quickly.
–RV gives people a feeling that their vote counts.
–Because the best ideas will flourish, RV has great potential to repair the encroaching decadence of our society.
–Negative, big-money smear campaigns will become ineffective, because voters will no longer fear “throwing their vote away” on an “unelectable” candidate who has the “machine” arrayed against him/her.
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Pg.4(of 4)
Strategy for implementation of range voting.
1) Find localities in various parts of the country that have one or more of the following characteristics:
–A significant percentage of the population is outraged by the 2020 election fraud.
–There are one or more recent local candidates for public office, who have a limited-government philosophy, who mounted admirable campaigns but did not have the necessary financial or logistical support to win.
–There are one or more local church pastors with medium-size congregations, who will be willing to assist logistically.
–There have been recent initiatives/referendums that have been supported by a number of ideologically committed local people. (i.e. taxes, public school issues, zoning)
2) After a local leader has been found, and at least one other influential local supporter has been found (such as a pastor or sponsor of an initiative) do not proceed further at the local level until funding or some other form of sponsorship has been obtained. Probably consulting will be the next most important type of sponsorship to have, after funding, prior to execution of the plan. Next in line is logistical support. (i.e. social media campaign manager, precinct walkers)
The best potential sponsors are pastors of mega-churches. (need not be local) Churches may be the most ideologically committed to the cause, and most willing to provide more than one form of sponsorship, such as financial, logistical, consultation.
It is essential to have the rudimentary preparations complete before approaching sponsors. These type of people are busy, and will not risk wasting time or money on projects that do not have preliminary preparations already completed.
coming soon: Tactics for the first RV initiative, and Strategy/Tactics for follow-up RV initiatives.
(To be announced)
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Addendum 1 – Promoting to the public
In the aftermath of the 2020 election we have a huge pool of potential RV supporters, congregated in conservative areas of the country. But it would be a mistake to assume that our product will sell itself, without any salesmanship on the part of our canvassers. This is the case especially during our debut, in the very first target county, before the rest of the nation has even heard about range voting. People will have questions, questions they may not even think of until after the canvasser leaves. So, the canvassers must be well-informed. They must attend teleconference meetings with one another several times a week, to compare notes.
Our primary target market, the millions of disenfranchised Trump voters, must be carefully nurtured. They will have questions. One question will be: Would it really be a good thing having lots of candidates on the ballot in every election? What is to stop anti-American groups from also gaining a seat in the public square? Answers to this question and others must be prepared ahead of the first ballot initiative.
In order to ensure victory, we should also gain the support of subgroups among the 50% of the population that are not solidly conservative. In particular, we will promote to soccer moms, the elderly, and Christians, and will be prepared to address the issues of concern to these groups.
As an example, consider a soccer mom who is outraged at haughty, domineering school board members who sneer at demands for more parental control over classroom materials.
If the canvasser is properly prepared, it would be easy to show this woman how range voting would empower her to apply pressure against the obstinate school board members. Our canvasser says this: “Range voting would allow your parents-rights candidate to get a huge number of votes. This would send a signal to the school board that they must address the issue, or chance losing their seats in the near future.”
Likewise, a group of elderly persons could be shown by the canvasser how RV could allow onto the ballot candidates with new proposals for health care for the elderly.
To a group of Christians, our canvasser could paint this picture: “Imagine a prominent Christian such as Franklin Graham moving into your neighborhood, and then running for public office, and getting a large number of votes under the new RV system. Every institution in the county would feel the pressure to become more moral and honest. School boards, local media, your representatives and other elected officials, all would be affected.”
To summarize, a major part of our preparations must be anticipating, and preparing answers for, the questions people will have.
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Addendum 2 – Range Voting vs ‘Ranked-choice’ Voting
Suppose that your goal is to grow a populist third party, alongside of and without harming the Republican party, for the purpose of applying pressure to advance a limited-government philosophy in the Republican party. You realize that the threat of your populist party eventually displacing the GOP must be a real one, in order for your ‘gradual pressure’ tactic to be convincing and effective.
Which election system, Range Voting or Ranked-choice Voting, would you choose for this purpose?
Range voting is a benign system that allows each voter, at election time, to express his dissatisfaction with the incumbent’s stance on a particular issue, by alerting the incumbent to the fact that the voter has considered a specific third-party candidate as an alternative.
Thus, the voter can apply pressure to the incumbent, without having to take the drastic step of ‘throwing’ the incumbent ‘overboard’ for a third-party candidate.
Here’s how it works:
–Election #1: (Nov. 2021) Citizen X gives a full 1.0 vote to the major-party incumbent A, and, in order to express dissatisfaction with the incumbent on certain issues, also gives a fraction of a vote, say 0.7, to third-party candidate B.
–Election #2: (two years later) Because incumbent A has been unresponsive, Citizen X gives candidate B a larger vote. (say, 0.9)
At this point, incumbent A becomes fearful of what may happen in Election #3, which is coming up in just two years. He adjusts the policies of his administration accordingly.
Incumbent A’s submission to the applied ‘gradual pressure’ will become common knowledge among politicians in other districts; consequently, their responses to such pressure from their own constituents will be prompt.
So, range voting allows Citizen X to express himself at election time, and also allows the growth of a popular third party….a third party that up to this point has been benign in nature, and has effected policy without actually displacing a major-party candidate. Nor has the third party become a vote-splitter, by stealing any votes from an incumbent.
This third party has now achieved stability and permanence, and has become a readily-available tool of the citizenry.
….’Ranked-choice’ voting, on the other hand….
Ranked-choice voting, on the other hand, forces Citizen X into choosing on his ballot the number one spot for incumbent A, and the number two spot for the third-party candidate. Any other choice risks allowing the competing major-party candidate, whom Citizen X detests, into power.
There exists no ‘gradual pressure’ mechanism in ranked-choice voting. Citizen X has only two choices….Leave the incumbent in the number one position, or ‘throw’ him ‘overboard’ by moving him down to the number two position.
Just like the current ‘plurality voting’ in wide use, ranked-choice voting makes Citizen X fearful of giving a substantial vote to a candidate who has the ‘machine’ arrayed against him. It allows no flexibility in giving an incrementally larger vote to a populist candidate each election cycle, as a way of applying gradual pressure to obstinate major-party candidates.
This brick-like crudeness of ranked-choice voting has a demonstrated history in various parts of the world; this history is easily discovered with a little research.
The flaws of a newly-installed ranked-choice system will not be visible, at first.
When first introduced into a district, ranked-choice can, in fact, expand a small third party into a slightly larger third party; however, this expansion will trail off before the third party ever becomes an actual threat. In a close election, voters will not risk instigating a spoiler effect against a like-minded major-party candidate.
The act of moving candidates between the number one and number two spots is a huge step that can have a spoiler effect. Ranked-choice voting cannot grow a third party as effortlessly as can the more sophisticated Range Voting.
In the past two decades, the relatively well-known ranked-choice voting system has been proposed or implemented in over a dozen regions of the U.S. These areas are prime targets for conversion to Range Voting. Do some research, and contact your representative on the issue.
Do not be discouraged when your representative says “range voting is more complicated than ranked-choice”…it is actually much LESS complicated, and much more satisfying to the voter. Explain to your Rep. the following:
–RV allows voters more choices than ranked-choice, by allowing them to explicitly express their degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
–RV allows ballots to be counted in the precinct; rather than shipped off to a central location for counting.
–RV allows election results to be counted immediately; ranked-choice often requires multiple recounts.
–RV allows the public to see how well each candidate did; ranked-choice only shows how the top candidates did, not the minor ones. (if your issue is minor, well of course you want to know how your candidate did!)
Before contacting your Rep, locate and download the article “Instant Runoff Voting: Looks Good, But Look Again” by Steven H. Unger, at cs.columbia.edu. We recommend skim-reading this article to locate the paragraphs that best allow you to prepare your presentation to your representative.
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Addendum 3 – Arguments against RV
Mainstream politicians will provide convincing arguments against range voting. They will point out that our founding fathers knew, from study of history, the pitfalls of pure democracy, and that that is why the founders gave us a representative republic instead. They will say that range voting gets too near to pure democracy, and that it will prevent statesmen from making decisions that are good for the nation.
This argument sounds logical and unimpeachable….but only if one’s definition of ‘statesman’ is similar to this:
“Statesman: a wise Elder who makes decisions based on knowledge and research; he is never swayed by lobbyists or other special interests; never makes compromises that would result in more ill than good for the public.”
If one’s definition of ‘statesman’ is less flattering, then one is left to wonder whether a little ‘pure democracy’, even temporarily, in order to keep legislators in line, might be a good thing.
Next, the mainstream politicians will come up with a slew of smaller arguments against range voting: “Too complicated….How do you know it will work?….How would you get rid of it if you don’t like it?”….all of these mini-arguments are actually excuses rather than arguments; all can be easily addressed. We will address them in future presentations, but will not waste time at this point.
The idea that a strong central government will always evolve into a tyranny is a concept first conceived in the late 17th century, by philosophers of the Enlightenment. 100 years later it was put into action by America’s founding fathers, and they gave the world its first constitutional republic since the fall of the Roman republic.
Many of the founders did not expect the new republic to last more than 30 or 40 years. They thought that the tendency of a central government to evolve was a force too powerful to be resisted by the citizenry. It’s a near-certainty that the founders would have applauded a range voting system as a means of reining in today’s out-of-control government.
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