Comments on: Colorado Republican Party Could Lose More in the Governor’s Race than the Election

By: Stephen Littau

Stephen Littau — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 01:38:14 +0000

Personally, I’m not so concerned whether Hickenlooper or Tancredo wins; what I’m hoping for on election day is that Maes gets less than 10% of the vote. My mantra for this race is “vote for anyone but Maes.”

I did my part by voting for Jaimes Brown, the Libertarian candidate.

By: Clay Shentrup

Clay Shentrup — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:56:23 +0000

Well, Range Voting (more often called “Score Voting” lately), is an actual solution to the spoiler problem. Instant Runoff Voting is NOT, despite common myth to the contrary. A simple example is the last IRV election for mayor of Burlington, Vermont.

There was a bloc of voters who preferred Republican over Democrat over Progressive, who could have caused the Democrat to win instead of the Progressive if they had insincerely ranked the Democrat in first place. This was similar in principle to how you could get Bush because you voted for Nader.

The simplest form of Score Voting is called Approval Voting. The ballot looks completely normal, but you can vote for as many candidates as you want, instead of being limited to just one. Approval Voting is mathematically the same as scoring the candidates on a 0 to 1 “scale”, which is why it’s still a form of Score Voting. It has the nice benefit of being vastly simpler than IRV, plus it can NEVER EVER punish you for supporting your favorite candidate, unlike IRV can (and DID in Burlington).

Nader’s former running mate, Matt Gonzalez, allowed me to post this essay on the subject.
http://asitoughttobe.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/score-voting/

Colorado Republicans really ought to consider getting Approval Voting enacted. In the short term, it will save them from spoilers. And while it may allow for the emergence of third party rivals, that will probably take many years, so today’s party power brokers will get more good than bad out of the deal.

By: EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy

EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:06:46 +0000

It is very telling that the GOP Chairman suddenly thinks this “minor party” nonsense is a problem now.

Forgive me if I think this positions is more selfish than principled. Still, if that what it takes to get the law changed.

But I won’t be impressed unless they opt for a fair, open field.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:02:11 +0000

Drop Maes and vote TANCREDO! We cannot stand to have another democrat in charge of the great state of Colorado!

Someone offer Maes incentive to drop out! Like, free ego repair.

By: sundancedave

sundancedave — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 23:04:18 +0000

Dan Maes is a crook and never should have been the Republican nominee apparently he is too egotistical and selfish to drop out. It will be Maes fault and only this crooks fault when the Colorado Repulican Party gets downgraded to a third party. I really hope Tancredo wins as he has a good chance to, but even he dosen’t it is better to have a Democrat governor than a crooked Republican