Plurality Voting Quotes

It's an ancient idea that the leader of a democracy should not be the cleverest but the most average. That's an arguable point, but the world has decided otherwise - except in America, where it still divides the country right down the middle.

In England, a Majority of Citizens does not elect the Majority of Representatives.

First-past-the-post builds a direct relationship between a community and their MP. Residents come together to decide who most people want as their national representative. No one has more than one vote and it has to be cast responsibly.

AV does not bring you greater proportionality - and there is a tendency for parties to gang up on one of the major ones to run an 'anyone but' campaign.

All I will say is that there are particular features of the American constitutional system that renders a third party futile - at best.

It is important that the United States remain a two-party system. I'm a fellow who likes small parties and the Republican Party can't be too small to suit me.

There's no place for a third party in the United States.

In my [Impossibility] theorem I'm assuming that the information is a ranking. Each voter can say of any two candidates, I prefer this one to this one. So then we have essentially a ranking. It's a list saying this is my first choice. This is my second choice. Each voter, in principle, could be asked to give that entire piece of information. In the ordinary Plurality Voting, say as used in electing Congressmen, we generally only ask for the first choice. But, in principle, we could ask for more choices.

In my view what you can't argue for is a system that is neither decisive nor proportional and can be indecisive and disproportionate at the same time.

Proportional representation, I think, is fundamentally counter-democratic.

I'm a first-past-the-post person, and always have been.

I used to be a fan of proportional representation, but I am not at all now I have seen it in action.

When I say things that sound insane, like only the smartest million people should have the right to vote, well, I mean that.

If you went to a parliamentary system for America, you would have 30 political parties develop overnight—maybe 50.