A new guest column by UMBC political science professor Thomas F. Schaller on Sabato’s Crystal Ball ask the highly provocative question, “How Should We Vote?”
Schaller writes:
Given pervasive gerrymandering and a shrinking number of competitive districts, any serious reform of congressional elections might also entail changes to our voting rules — that is, how votes are cast by voters and aggregated to determine winners… So what sort of voting rule reforms might significantly alter the composition of Congress, encourage greater voter participation and create a more responsive national legislature?
Changing voting rules can change voter behavior in two important ways, notes Schaller: impacting the likelihood that someone will vote and affecting “how voters express their preferences once they do turn out to vote, especially if they are able to indicate secondary and alternative preferences and therefore vote strategically.”
Schaller suggests:
Despite the earnest efforts of FairVote.org and other electoral reform advocates to move legislation through Congress or the state legislatures, what is probably needed first is a widespread voter education effort… Election reform advocates must first get Americans to properly recognize that the roots of the problem reside as much in the voting rules as in campaign finance law or the redistricting process.
Tags: CAHSS, PoliticalScience
