Colorado voting reform - how do we proceed?
Jan Kok
* Invitation to join COVoterChoice group.
* Starting the discussion: how do we proceed?
Invitation
======
If you have any interest at all in voting reform in Colorado, please
join the COVoterChoice group, which is intended for discussions
related to State Rep. John Kefalas's Voter Choice Act.
To join the group, go to http://groups.google.com/group/COVoterChoice
and click on "Join this group" on the right-hand menu.
COVoterChoice is a Google group. Google groups are similar in concept
to Yahoo groups. You can send mail to all members of the group by
sending to COVote...@googlegroups.com . Any mail you receive from
the group has "[COVoterChoice]" at the beginning of the title, so it's
easy to skip over it if you don't have time to read it.
Please join! Your interest and participation is much appreciated!
How do we proceed?
===============
How should this group proceed? I suggest we prepare at least two bills
to be introduced in the 2008 legislative session:
1. A bill that focuses on changes needed to get rid of the spoiler
effect for the Nov 2008 election (effectively converts state and
federal level elections in Colorado to Approval Voting). See
http://groups.google.com/group/COVoterChoice/msg/796ae606e14ebb6d for
details about why we should do this.
2. A bill that makes changes needed to implement one or more Advanced
Voting Methods (AVMs, such as IRV, Approval Voting, Range Voting,
Proportional Representation) probably after 2008.
There are several Colorado Libertarians and several out of state
voting reformers who are in favor of item #1. I'd like to hear from
other Coloradoans and from IRV supporters. Do you/will you support
item #1? If not, why not?
Thanks,
- Jan
John Kefalas
Please make sure folks understand that this kind of internet diaolgue is
important and welcome, but that the Voter Choice Task Force we are
establishing is separate and will include all the public commentary. Thanks
for your efforts to set up Google group (just do not want folks to get
confused since task force is not even up and running).
John Kefalas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jan Kok" <jan.k...@gmail.com>
To: "John Kefalas" <jkefal...@frii.com>; "Rick VanWie"
<rickv...@comcast.net>; "Rob Richie" <r...@fairvote.org>; "Eric Fried"
<er...@pvgreens.org>; "Hollie Kopp" <hk...@frii.com>; "David Cobb"
<cob...@greens.org>; "Ryan Griffin" <rgri...@fairvote.org>; "Jenny
Flanagan" <JFla...@commoncause.org>; <coprog...@aol.com>;
"Mayberry,Wanda" <mayb...@cahs.colostate.edu>;
<john.kefa...@state.co.us>; <COVote...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2007 6:34 PM
Subject: Colorado voting reform - how do we proceed?
Abd ul-Rahman Lomax
apologies to those who may receive duplicate mails as a result.]
At 08:37 AM 5/2/2007, John Kefalas wrote:
>Please make sure folks understand that this kind of internet diaolgue is
>important and welcome, but that the Voter Choice Task Force we are
>establishing is separate and will include all the public commentary. Thanks
>for your efforts to set up Google group (just do not want folks to get
>confused since task force is not even up and running).
I see this forum as an extended public comment and discussion Forum
which may be able to collect ideas and information from a broader
public (actually a national or international one), including some who
are quite well informed, than the Voter Choice Task Force on its own
can easily assemble.
However, a public forum like this can contain a lot of noise.
Fortunately, it only takes a few people willing to follow what
appears here to be able to extract the signal from the noise. If the
traffic here becomes a problem, there are other solutions that I
won't mention now.
Any member of the actual Task Force can then funnel what is relevant
from here, in the judgement of the member, to the Task Force itself,
and its record. Indeed, I'd recommend that the Task Force itself
function as a mailing list, with members having the right to post to
it, and others having the right to read the list, but not to post to
it unless specifically permitted. The TF mailing list then becomes a
record of the Task Force deliberations, with no cost associated.
If the Task Force meets in person, then, of course, a record of the
meeting can be made and posted to the Task Force list to make the TF
mailing list a full assembled public record. A summary record may
later be redacted from this for the purpose of preparing a formal report.
Members of the public who read the TF list and have comments can
either post them here, or send them to a congenial member of the Task
Force. In any case this process will involve the general public
without creating an undue burden for anyone. The TF should be able to
function in this way with little or no funding; what remaining
funding is still necessary should be quite easy to raise through
private donations.
Indeed, the TF mailing list could start to function immediately with
the suggested members, limiting, I would suggest, its initial process
to the assembly of a full Task Force.