{"id":46,"date":"2012-05-11T08:11:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T17:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opinion.alaskapolicy.net\/pardonme\/?p=46"},"modified":"2012-05-25T23:25:47","modified_gmt":"2012-05-26T08:25:47","slug":"voting-issues-in-the-us-hava-na-gila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opinion.alaskapolicy.net\/pardonme\/voting-issues-in-the-us-hava-na-gila\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting Issues in the US; HAVA na gila"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oregon has been experimenting with voting by mail. While there may be downsides to accompany the positives<\/a> (see, e.g. http:\/\/archive.fairvote.org\/turnout\/mail.htm) The Carter-Baker Report suggests that Vote by Mail (VBM) may increase turnout by 10% in low profile election and does not bring new voters to the process,\u00a0 but it does appear to have an impact on ballot integrity<\/a> . Washington also does vote by mail.\u00a0 Oregon is now moving to include e-mail voting<\/a>\u00a0 and even offer the ability to vote by ipad<\/a>.\u00a0 The Oregon voting site is at http:\/\/oregonvotes.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

While the efforts in the Pacific North West may improve the voting experience by increasing the period during which one may vote and providing alternatives to to using suspect voting machines, most jurisdictions in the US still use one of the least “fair” voting systems available,\u00a0 and most Americans haven’t a clue about the relative benefits of PR, or Proportional Representation, as opposed to the “single-member district plurality system” in use in most jurisdictions in the US today.<\/p>\n

Douglas J Amy at Mt Holyoke College has put together an online library on the subject<\/a>. Amy is also the author of a number of books on the subject, one of which is available online in pdf format<\/a> and another which is a comprehensive extension of the materials published on the Mt. Holyoke<\/a> web site.\u00a0\u00a0 He not only explains the difference between the typical US system and PR,\u00a0 he also provides an accessible explanation of different types of voting systems.<\/p>\n

Some other resources on voting systems?<\/p>\n