MP = Member of Parliament (100
MPs at large, national wide)
MSP = Member of Super-state Parliament (100 MSPs per state)
MMP = Member of Mini-state Parliament (100 MMPs per county)
PM= Prime Minister (figurehead)
Secretary=Communications
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1.What are my responsibilities as an elected member
of Parliament?
2.How does the voting system under 1/100ths work?
3.What about in regards to the US Constitution?
4.Email your question to vvc@usparliament.org
and have it posted here!
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1.What are my responsibilities required as an elected member of Parliament?
There are
no responsibilities required. However, everyone
may contribute in any capacity they wish.
People who recognize that the
results of the stack of ballots cast, as counted under a voting system based
on 1/100ths and proportional representation, while electing the three prime
ministers, two secretaries and the approval of the rules by 50% plus one
of voting members, may speak on behalf of the US Parliament to promote the
project. As an elected member, they may make known
their “MP’s Ballot” to elect the Prime Ministers and Secretaries, and contact
other MPs to organize a block behind election of the executives and the
rules.
The five executives, three prime ministers and two secretaries,
are expected to elect
twelve full cabinets, and when all nominees get a ranking by each executives,
then
each of the twelve executives are guaranteed to elect 1/5th their own nominees
for the twelve Ministries, including Deputy Ministers.
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2.How does the voting system under 1/100ths work?
29. HOW THE VOTE-COUNT WORKS: Majority Preference Voting (MPV) for the PM and other single-winner elections. Everyone's vote goes initially to his or her 1st choice. If no candidate has a majority, then the candidate with fewest votes is eliminated, and each of his ballots goes to its next choice. This process of elimination & re-distribution continues until 1 candidate has a majority of the ballots.
30. THE SAINTE-LAGUE seat allocation for the USA Parliament. 1. Divide the election's total number of votes by 100 (number of seats). This is the 1st quota. 2. Divide this quota into each candidate's votes, and round off to the nearest whole number. That's that candidate's seat allocation. 3. If, due to rounding, this awards a number of seats different from the desired number of 100 seats, then adjust the quota slightly up or down, till, when paragraph 2 is carried out, it will award exactly 100 seats.
Commentary by Jimmy Ogle ….
In most all US style single winner and multi winner elections,
the voter makes a “check” or “x” by the choice(s), and the results are
added up using addition, and the one(s) with the most votes wins.
That’s called first past the post, or FPTP, the results are unpredictable,
rarely proportionate, and the majority's choice rarely wins.
A single
winner majority is 50% plus one vote, which is guaranteed
Under instant runoff voting, but not under FPTP.
Fox example,
in dual district FPTP elections two candidates
can win 100% of the representation by winning 10% of the votes cast, while
the 80% majority could be split among 12 candidates with 6.5% each,
all who lost. In that example the 80% “losers”
are the majority,
and the majority won no representation at all.
FPTP also attributes to racial districts, gerrymandering and the
"split vote problem", causing a suppression of many nominees.
The results in FPTP elections are always unpredictable,
and not proportionate to the votes cast.
Dual member districts that use ranked voting however,
under 1/100ths, guarantees that 66.66% plus two
of the votes, elect the two nominees within each category
in your elections under IRV in every
dual candidate election. Because two candidates
with 33% plus
one vote, leaves less than 33.33% of the ballots not electing anyone,
so the third choice isn't elected.
The way it works, is once one nominee garners 33.33% of the votes,
plus one vote, they are declared winner.
In no candidate received 33.33% plus one vote, then the nominee with the fewest #1 marks on their ballots is eliminated, and the ballot is transferred over to the voter's #2 choice. That’s called the “single transferable vote”, or STV. Each "round" takes place, eliminating the lowest vote getter and single transferring the ranked ballot to the voters' next choice(s) until eventually the first candidate passes 33.33% by one vote. After one candidate wins, then the “rounds” continue until the second person receives the next 33.33% of the votes plus one vote, and they are declared winner.
The remaining number of rounds and stack of ballots will be less than
33.33% (hence the "plus one vote" earlier in the count),
and the remaining candidate (once all lowest ranked vote getters are eliminated),
will have less than 33.33%,
and will not be elected. As the threshold is 33.33% and 66.66% plus two votes had been used to elect the two winners,
the balance will be less than 33.33%.
This system will guarantee that 66.66% of the voters get representation
every time in two member districts, while
however less than 33.33 percent of voters did not get representation under
IRV in the dual member district.
The more the members per district,
the more exact and proportionate, the better the
"portrait of the people", via the results.
In a three member district, the threshold is 25% plus one, under PR and
IRV.
In a four member district, 20% plus one vote … and a 100 member district, 1%.
The 100-member district is called “full representation”, and that’s how
the US Parliament's voting system works.
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3.What about in regards to the US Constitution?
Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each state having one vote; A quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President."
And the 12th Amendment;
Twelfth Amendment - Election of President
The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.--The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
Election of President
This Amendment, 1 which supersedes clause 3 of Sec. 1 of Article II, was adopted so as to make impossible the situation occurring after the election of 1800 in which Jefferson and Burr received tie votes in the electoral college, thus throwing the selection of a President into the House of Representatives, despite the fact that the electors had intended Jefferson to be President and Burr to be Vice- President. 2 The difference between the procedure which it defines and that which was laid down originally is in the provision it makes for a separate designation by the electors of their choices for President and Vice-President, respectively. As a consequence of the disputed election of 1870, Congress has enacted a statute providing that if the vote of a State is not certified by the governor under seal, it shall not be counted unless both Houses of Congress concur. 3
Footnotes
[Footnote 1] A number of provisions of the Amendment have been superseded by the Twentieth Amendment.
[Footnote 2] Cunningham, Election of 1800, in 1 History of American Presidential Elections 101 (A. Schlesinger ed., 1971).
[Footnote 3] 3 U.S.C. Sec. 15.
Message: 17
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 21:41:24 -0800
From: "Phil Boncer" <phil@boncer.com>
Subject: RE: Method of selecting the President
There is a lot weaseling involved here, but as far as I can tell,
way the Presidential elections and the electoral college currently
work is not in direct contravention of the Constitution as it stands.
The problem is that the process has been hijacked by the big two
parties.
1) The states get to choose how they appoint their electors. The
process that has been chosen by the legislators of every state
except Maine and Nebraska is that each political party nominates
a slate of electors, and a candidate for President, and a candidate
for Vice-President. Whichever party's candidates get the most votes
in the election, that party picks the electors for the state. Those
electors then meet and vote for the two persons (one for President
and one for Vice-President, as stated in the 12th Amendment), and
those votes are transmitted to the Senate.
1a) Maine and Nebraska are different only in that the slate of
electors (equal to the number of Representatives) is picked by the
parties based on the votes of each congressional district, not by
the votes of the state as a whole. The two electors (equal to the
number of Senators) is still picked according to the votes of the
state as a whole.
2) The electors chosen do actually vote separately for President
and Vice-President, and are not legally bound to vote for the same
people that the party that nominated them has chosen. They could
rebel and vote for whomever they like. One of two of them has done
so a couple of times. But these electors are chosen by the state
parties based on their loyalty to those parties, so it highly
unlikely that there will be any significant rebellion of those
electors.
SO the upshot of all this is:
a) The current system does conform to the letter of the law (if not
the spirit) and therefore a challenge in the court of law is not
going to be fruitful.
b) Reform will have to take place state-by-state.
c) A good starting reform would be to get states to apportion their
electors like Maine and Nebraska do, which would in itself offer
more opportunity for alternative parties to make an impact on the
election.
d) The key is that the current method is that any given state
legislature chooses its electors simply by ratifying the choices
that the party that wins the election has chosen (on the basis
of party loyalty). That is the thing that needs to be changed in
order to restore the independence of the electors that was
originally intended.
philb
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Email your questions and answers! vvc@usparliament.org