"Fuck IRV Today, Tomorrow. Fuck IRV Forever." ~Dennis Flores
Dennis Flores, Mark Aliff, & Bob Schilling all won their city council seats in 2017 by a plurality of votes. Only Ed Brown won a majority of votes. Ed Brown was the only City Council candidate to become a majority-backed victor in Pueblo City's 2017 City Council elections.
Dennis Flores did win a respectable 44% of the Pueblo Citians who voted (10,518 of 23,952), but 44% isn't a majority, at all, now is it?
There's 2 levels of a failed democracy here: 1) 35% turnout rate, &; 2) Plurality "winners".
1st, Pueblo City's turnout rate was only 35%. Schools teach 100% compliance, & that's one reason why only 35% of Pueblo votes. They're not supposed to participate in power.
If only 35% of Pueblo City voted, then that means 65% of the people of Pueblo City do not participate in their own democratic government, at all. If one doesn't vote, then you're not following political careers & legislation, or anything else political, so therefore, most likely, unless the government conducts a major change, those 65% don't & won't ever participate in their own government. This is a major problem, b/c nobody elected has any democratic legitimacy. The point of American democracy is to be a system of, by, & for the people, but without 65% of the people - the vast majority of the people of Pueblo City - the governed aren't consenting to jack shit.
If an election doesn't contain "the people", meaning 50% + 1, then that election needs to be canceled, and a redo needs to happen, only this time, include the people in your so-called "democratic" system.
Not surprisingly, those who "win" without a majority - such as Dennis Flores - will oppress all the same anyways, as if he did have the mandate of the people of Pueblo City, which he doesn't have. US Bank, however, firmly supports him, & vice versa, since Dennis Flores sits on US Bank's Advisory Board.
Since 65% of the people of Pueblo City do not vote, then none of those elected have democratic legitimacy.
2nd, even out of those 35% who actually did vote, those elected by them weren't elected by a majority of those 35%. For example, Dennis Flores won 44% of the voters from the 35% turnout rate, and 44% of 35% is 15%. 35% isn't a majority. 44% isn't a majority. & neither is 15%. It's a plurality, & a weak plurality at that.
Dennis "Mr. 15%" Flores is now pretending that Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), aka Preferential Voting, aka Ranked Choice Voting, doesn't guarantee a majority-supported victor. Dennis Flores is outright lying in order to blindly oppose IRV, for whatever mysterious reason.
Why would anybody be against the fairest electoral system in the world? Only the dirty, the corrupted, & the wicked would be opposed to fairness. Dennis acts like he's never ever heard of it until this year, even though it's been around for decades.
If Dennis Flores truly believed in the principle that only majority-supported candidates should serve in government, Mr. 15% needs to resign immediately. 15% is less than 50% +1. Dennis won't resign because standing up for only majority-backed victors is not truly a principle he actually believes in. Just for now, for the time being, he'll pretend like that's a principle he's always believed in. It was only 6 months ago when Flores "won" his seat w/o a majority. Dennis Flores wasn't principled on majority-supported politicians just 6 months ago. Now he is? Yeah, okay.
Perhaps Dennis Flores wants the French-Haitian election system (just 1 runoff b/t Top 2 candidates, IF 1 of them weren't a majority winner in the 1st election) because it reinforces the 2-party Duopoly; OR maybe because he wants to get on Nick "Kingfish" Gradisar's good side, angling himself as Gradisar's main man if he wins the Mayor's race. Who knows exactly. [What happens when somebody wins 49% & another wins 23%? Does Mr. 23% deserve a runoff election, after getting his ass handed to him in a landslide? Haitians have a law that says if the victor wins by more than 25%, then no runoff should happen. That sounds reasonable to me, but so far Pueblo City hasn't proposed this caveat to prevent this pratfall.]
Personally, it's reasonable to assume that old man Dennis Flores is afraid of any new things, ever, b/c an old dog can't learn new tricks. It's also reasonable to assume that Dennis Flores is worried that changing the Electoral System into a fair system would mean that he wouldn't have won his 2017 race, if IRV had been used. Since he won w/ a non-majority plurality - 15% - which means 85% of the voting electorate did not want Dennis Flores to be on City Council, including me (85% is the overwhelming majority), he's afraid in 4 years, when he runs for office again, he'll have to fight even harder to get the support of the Puebloan people on his side, and he's afraid of that IRV challenge. Mr. 15% is happy w/ his 15% mandate. That suits him just fine & dandy.
IRV calls for every victorious politician to have wide, deep, broad-based support. Mr. Dennis "I Love & Protect US Bank more & better than the 1,000 homeless kids" Flores claims that the French/Haitian Runoff Election clearly supports a majority-backed victor, whereas IRV doesn't. That's a lie, but Mark Aliff repeated some of his claims by saying a simple Top 2 Runoff election would guarantee a majority-backed victor. While that part is true, by forcing only Mrs. 49% & Mr. 25% (or Mrs. 7% & Mr. 6%) to run against each other, then a majority-victor is guaranteed.
Both systems guarantee a majority-supported victor. Dennis Flores is a liar. The entire point of IRV is to guarantee a majority-victor. Both the French/Haitian Runoff elections & IRV guarantee majority-supported winners.
I have a compromise, but I wasn't invited to the Charter Convention, since these corrupt anti-Constitutional criminal assholes didn't follow their own Charter, so I'm not sure if I want to keep fighting for a city who is clearly opposed to us.
My Compromise is this: Have 2 physically different French/Haitian Runoff Elections, with both of them using IRV. There's already 20 candidates. What if there's 50, or 100, or more? IRV will whittle out the best candidate, much better than a simple Runoff election would. With just a French/Haitian Runoff Election, we're only going to choose the Top 2... out of 100 candidates!?! Jesus Christ.
By holding a Top 10 IRV election on Election Day (the 1st Tuesday of November), and then holding another Top 10 IRV election 2 months later (to accommodate the 45 days our overseas soldiers need), the process for whittling down the candidates will be more rigorous, & therefore, will produce a much better candidate - one with deep, wide, broad-based support - than if the simple Runoff election went forward as Gradisar planned.
We'll also have an Electoral System named after us. Our IRV will be known as the Pueblo IRV System. While IRV is used in many places - Telluride, Maine, St. Paul, Minneapolis, the Oscars, Ireland, India - Pueblo City will have a smart & fair IRV system, which was brought by compromise, just like Amerika's 2 legislative Houses, which have been copied all over the world.
Of course Dennis Flores will deprive future generations of Puebloans of a fair electoral system. He already doesn't give a shit that 1,000 children don't have a home to live in, so why would that Democrat care if they truly live in a democratic society?
Dennis Flores did win a respectable 44% of the Pueblo Citians who voted (10,518 of 23,952), but 44% isn't a majority, at all, now is it?
There's 2 levels of a failed democracy here: 1) 35% turnout rate, &; 2) Plurality "winners".
1st, Pueblo City's turnout rate was only 35%. Schools teach 100% compliance, & that's one reason why only 35% of Pueblo votes. They're not supposed to participate in power.
If only 35% of Pueblo City voted, then that means 65% of the people of Pueblo City do not participate in their own democratic government, at all. If one doesn't vote, then you're not following political careers & legislation, or anything else political, so therefore, most likely, unless the government conducts a major change, those 65% don't & won't ever participate in their own government. This is a major problem, b/c nobody elected has any democratic legitimacy. The point of American democracy is to be a system of, by, & for the people, but without 65% of the people - the vast majority of the people of Pueblo City - the governed aren't consenting to jack shit.
If an election doesn't contain "the people", meaning 50% + 1, then that election needs to be canceled, and a redo needs to happen, only this time, include the people in your so-called "democratic" system.
Not surprisingly, those who "win" without a majority - such as Dennis Flores - will oppress all the same anyways, as if he did have the mandate of the people of Pueblo City, which he doesn't have. US Bank, however, firmly supports him, & vice versa, since Dennis Flores sits on US Bank's Advisory Board.
Since 65% of the people of Pueblo City do not vote, then none of those elected have democratic legitimacy.
2nd, even out of those 35% who actually did vote, those elected by them weren't elected by a majority of those 35%. For example, Dennis Flores won 44% of the voters from the 35% turnout rate, and 44% of 35% is 15%. 35% isn't a majority. 44% isn't a majority. & neither is 15%. It's a plurality, & a weak plurality at that.
Dennis "Mr. 15%" Flores is now pretending that Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), aka Preferential Voting, aka Ranked Choice Voting, doesn't guarantee a majority-supported victor. Dennis Flores is outright lying in order to blindly oppose IRV, for whatever mysterious reason.
Why would anybody be against the fairest electoral system in the world? Only the dirty, the corrupted, & the wicked would be opposed to fairness. Dennis acts like he's never ever heard of it until this year, even though it's been around for decades.
If Dennis Flores truly believed in the principle that only majority-supported candidates should serve in government, Mr. 15% needs to resign immediately. 15% is less than 50% +1. Dennis won't resign because standing up for only majority-backed victors is not truly a principle he actually believes in. Just for now, for the time being, he'll pretend like that's a principle he's always believed in. It was only 6 months ago when Flores "won" his seat w/o a majority. Dennis Flores wasn't principled on majority-supported politicians just 6 months ago. Now he is? Yeah, okay.
Perhaps Dennis Flores wants the French-Haitian election system (just 1 runoff b/t Top 2 candidates, IF 1 of them weren't a majority winner in the 1st election) because it reinforces the 2-party Duopoly; OR maybe because he wants to get on Nick "Kingfish" Gradisar's good side, angling himself as Gradisar's main man if he wins the Mayor's race. Who knows exactly. [What happens when somebody wins 49% & another wins 23%? Does Mr. 23% deserve a runoff election, after getting his ass handed to him in a landslide? Haitians have a law that says if the victor wins by more than 25%, then no runoff should happen. That sounds reasonable to me, but so far Pueblo City hasn't proposed this caveat to prevent this pratfall.]
Personally, it's reasonable to assume that old man Dennis Flores is afraid of any new things, ever, b/c an old dog can't learn new tricks. It's also reasonable to assume that Dennis Flores is worried that changing the Electoral System into a fair system would mean that he wouldn't have won his 2017 race, if IRV had been used. Since he won w/ a non-majority plurality - 15% - which means 85% of the voting electorate did not want Dennis Flores to be on City Council, including me (85% is the overwhelming majority), he's afraid in 4 years, when he runs for office again, he'll have to fight even harder to get the support of the Puebloan people on his side, and he's afraid of that IRV challenge. Mr. 15% is happy w/ his 15% mandate. That suits him just fine & dandy.
IRV calls for every victorious politician to have wide, deep, broad-based support. Mr. Dennis "I Love & Protect US Bank more & better than the 1,000 homeless kids" Flores claims that the French/Haitian Runoff Election clearly supports a majority-backed victor, whereas IRV doesn't. That's a lie, but Mark Aliff repeated some of his claims by saying a simple Top 2 Runoff election would guarantee a majority-backed victor. While that part is true, by forcing only Mrs. 49% & Mr. 25% (or Mrs. 7% & Mr. 6%) to run against each other, then a majority-victor is guaranteed.
Both systems guarantee a majority-supported victor. Dennis Flores is a liar. The entire point of IRV is to guarantee a majority-victor. Both the French/Haitian Runoff elections & IRV guarantee majority-supported winners.
I have a compromise, but I wasn't invited to the Charter Convention, since these corrupt anti-Constitutional criminal assholes didn't follow their own Charter, so I'm not sure if I want to keep fighting for a city who is clearly opposed to us.
My Compromise is this: Have 2 physically different French/Haitian Runoff Elections, with both of them using IRV. There's already 20 candidates. What if there's 50, or 100, or more? IRV will whittle out the best candidate, much better than a simple Runoff election would. With just a French/Haitian Runoff Election, we're only going to choose the Top 2... out of 100 candidates!?! Jesus Christ.
By holding a Top 10 IRV election on Election Day (the 1st Tuesday of November), and then holding another Top 10 IRV election 2 months later (to accommodate the 45 days our overseas soldiers need), the process for whittling down the candidates will be more rigorous, & therefore, will produce a much better candidate - one with deep, wide, broad-based support - than if the simple Runoff election went forward as Gradisar planned.
We'll also have an Electoral System named after us. Our IRV will be known as the Pueblo IRV System. While IRV is used in many places - Telluride, Maine, St. Paul, Minneapolis, the Oscars, Ireland, India - Pueblo City will have a smart & fair IRV system, which was brought by compromise, just like Amerika's 2 legislative Houses, which have been copied all over the world.
Of course Dennis Flores will deprive future generations of Puebloans of a fair electoral system. He already doesn't give a shit that 1,000 children don't have a home to live in, so why would that Democrat care if they truly live in a democratic society?
Comments
Post a Comment