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Open Ballot Voting - Our (not so) Secret Weapon

From: Working Families Party


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How do we go beyond the traditional two-party electoral system? In this article, the Working Families Party outlines an alternative called Open-Ballot Voting. Open-Ballot Voting is a strategy to elevate the progressive values of parties that are outside the dominant two-party system. Open-Ballot Voting allows different parties to endorse the same candidates. The overall winner is determined by candidates' vote totals. With this "weapon," third parties can make an impact during elections and send clear messages to lawmakers that articulate the values and beliefs of the people who identify with the progressive movement. This alternative to the traditional election system offers a vision that subverts the dominant framework of the two-party system.

Posted by: Dennis Chin

Open Ballot Voting

Posted by Bill Tower at January 03, 2008
This (and Instant Run-Off Voting) is what the Democratic Party should be encouraging, rather than crying about how some 3rd party candidate has cost them the election. Instead, some supposedly "progressive" Democrats have, in the past, done everything they can to sabotage such efforts.

Witness how the Democratic Party responded to the 2004 election--spending so much of their money and other resources to assure that we would have no alternative to the Dem and Rep parties. These same Dems even introduced legislation at least once that would have codified their strategy into federal law.