[geeks] California Proposition 14

[Phil Stracchino]

On 06/05/10 19:48, gsm at mendelson.com wrote:
> It used to be that you could get one member of our parliment elected, but now
> you have to have at least two seats to get any. This was to prevent parties
> such as "deport all the arabs" and the Green (leaf) party from getting a voice.
> It also stifled the Casino party (open casinos and use the revenue to cut 
> taxes), so it is not all good.

I'm guessing they got that idea from the UK as well.  Prior to the 1978
general election, Parliament changed the rules for elections in the UK
so that although sponsored air time for party political broadcasts was
allocated in proportion to the number of seats you were contesting, you
could not actually *get* any of your allocated air time unless you
contested (and paid the "deposits" to contest, said "deposits"
refundable only if you won) a minimum of fifty seats.  It was pretty
clear at the time that the rule change was made with the intention of
preventing any but the Big Three parties (Conservative, labor, and
Liberal) from getting their message out on the air, and was widely
believed that it was done because the Greens were for the first time
getting significant visibility in UK politics and, unlike (say) the
National Front, were not clearly raving loonies whom only their own
would vote for anyway.


-- 
  Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
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         Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
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