Word: fusion
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Nevertheless, third parties will still be free to nominate their own candidates for office, if they feel that the mainstream candidates do not sufficiently represent their platforms. In fact, lesser-known candidates will greatly benefit from the increased visibility and importance third parties gain from fusion voting...
Such a system will even be advantageous for the Democrats and Republicans. At least initially, fusion voting will strengthen the two-party system, allowing the establishment parties to garner votes that might otherwise go to candidates with no hope of winning. In return, mainstream campaigns will be forced to speak to difficult local and regional issues instead of safely spouting the hackneyed political fare that they are used...
...some arenas, such as New York’s historically torpid political milieu, fusion voting has provided a much needed shot in the arm. Once-marginalized parties such as the Working Families Party, the Conservative Party, and the Independence Party have become forces in local and statewide elections. In a few important races where they cross-endorsed a mainstream candidate, votes under their aegis even proved decisive. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), for example, was nominated by both the Democratic and Working Families parties in 2000, and a significant chunk of her votes came under the latter banner...
...much of an improvement as fusion voting will be, there is a better alternative: instant-runoff voting (which is also known as ranked choice voting, Hare-Clark proportional voting, and several other names). A more radical electoral change than fusion voting, instant-runoff voting (IRV) will enable voters to rank candidates instead of voting for just one. After an instant-runoff election, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated from contention, and the voters who voted for this candidate have their second-choice votes redistributed to the remaining candidates. The process of elimination and redistribution continues until...
...Unlike fusion voting, which will provide much more of a boost to third parties than third-party candidates, IRV will allow voters who would rather support lesser-known candidates to not have to settle for a candidate too moderate or extreme for their tastes. Instead, they could cast their first vote for the minority candidate but still have their second, mainstream choice count...