British Election Update: Hung Parliament Likely

demomoke

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Wednesday April 21, 2010 · 6:34 PM PDT

2010/04/21 · 18:34

Just an update from across the pond, for my fellow election-starved Kossacks.

demomoke

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Sunday April 18, 2010 · 6:57 PM PDT

2010/04/18 · 18:57

**This was touched on in Morus's diary about the general election, but I wanted to expand on this.

Ah, the time-honoured "first-past-the-post" system. It's how Britain has elected its MPs for centuries. Most current democracies that were ever a part of the British Empire conduct, or have at some time conducted, their elections in that way. Virtually every single election at any level in the US is run in the same manner.

Here in America, where there are two, and only two, major political parties, FPTP doesn't fail us very much at all. The proportion of seats a party wins is usually fairly analogous to the number of votes for that party in the election. I know some may ask if Florida 2000 was a FPTP failure. No, that was an Electoral College failure.

So, in America, because of the rigid two-party system, FPTP works out. But what if we had a multi-party system? Better yet, what if the three or more parties were fairly even?

demomoke

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Friday September 04, 2009 · 3:53 PM PDT

2009/09/04 · 15:53

If one looks at a map of the United States with the numbers of House members each state has, one might look at California's 53 members and compare it to the several states that have just one apiece and think, "Wow, how is that fair?" And they would be absolutely right in wondering that.

demomoke

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Saturday July 11, 2009 · 9:20 PM PDT

2009/07/11 · 21:20

If I'm Tim Kaine, my next letter to Democrats would read something like this:

demomoke

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Saturday July 11, 2009 · 11:20 AM PDT

2009/07/11 · 11:20

We all know that California is in a severe fiscal crisis, which, in turn, has the potential to spawn numerous other calamities here in the Golden State.

While there are myriad reasons behind this, most of them are manifestations of one or both of these two: 1) the requirement for two-thirds majorities in the Legislature to pass a budget and to raise taxes, and 2) the popular initiative process.

demomoke

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Friday July 10, 2009 · 6:40 PM PDT

2009/07/10 · 18:40

After a month of intraparty tension led to a stalemate in the New York state Senate, control returned to Democrats when Bronx Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr., returned to the Democratic caucus, restoring their thin 32-30 edge.

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British Election Update: Hung Parliament Likely

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Blame California's Mess on 2/3-Majority, Initiative Rules

New York Senate Returns to Democratic Control