A lot of people have expressed some frustration about the straw poll and fantasy polls that kos has posted. I have a solution for all of this. I think the most common requests are wanting people in, out, or in head-to-head matchups. Specifically this would be things like "you forgot
___", "poll without Clark", or "Gore vs. Dean" (really any front runner vs. any other front runner).
The desire for those one-on-one polls is a direct result of the fact that
one vote is only enough to distinguish between two choices.
I think the desire for "poll without __" comes from a real curiosity to find out in more detail what the community thinks. But, that is blocked by the problem that a choose-one ballot gives very little information.
Finally, when trying to save people from themselves and not let them throw their vote away on minor candidates, it may seem a good idea to the poll writer to exclude most of the lesser choices.
The Solution
A rankings or ratings ballot lets you fully express your conscience on the choices. We get lots of information on what everyone wants. No votes are thrown away, it's ok to want the little guy first and still express some opinion on the other choices.
The current poll is running quite nicely, with 174 votes at the moment. I know there are a long list of minor choices not on there. Ideally the poll would have write-in ability but I haven't finished that feature. Until then, I'll try to post a relatively inclusive (long) ratings ballot poll. The current list I would put up (after some comment) is this:
Senator Evan Bayh
Senator Barbara Boxer
President Jimmy Carter
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
Retired General Wesley Clark
Governor Howard Dean
Senator John Edwards
Vice President Al Gore
Representative Dennis Kucinich
Senator Barak Obama
Governor Bill Richardson
Senator Russ Feingold
Governor Tom Vilsack
Governor Mark Warner
Other
No Clue