Integration with Existing Infrastructure
-
I was discussing voting systems with a friend, and he was curious about how alternative voting systems would integrate into existing infrastructure such as districting and the electoral college.
This seems like it could be a ground-up, potentially idiosyncratic thing, but we have seen adoptions in certain states of alternative systems and they have obviously integrated into a national level system. My curiosity is about the logistics of this on a larger scale, and if there is a clear roadmap that offers generality of scope for other states to follow suit.
I’m wondering if people have more knowledge on this subject, and if they would be willing to share or collect resources here for others to investigate. I’ll probably look into this myself. I’m also opening a subject about historical examples of alternative systems, please chime in with any thoughts or considerations!
-
@cfrank I’m bringing this topic up again, because it seems necessary to consider the implications of how alternative systems at lower levels of government translate effects upward, especially when higher levels maintain a winner-take-all style.
For instance, in a presidential election, say we adopt maximal lotteries (Condorcet compliant) to generate social choice rankings per state. For this to translate nicely to the federal level and accommodate the electoral college, the natural extension seems to be another maximal lottery where voters are states casting ranked choice ballots with electoral college weightings.
I think this could be a viable system in principle, but the question is about how feasible the structural and institutional changes would be to make.
The same sort of question comes up with approval voting. Essentially, my worry is that without upper-level criteria met, lower-level changes, while still locally impactful and potentially inducing long run changes, would not translate effectively upward in the short term, and may even destabilize upper levels of government.