new voting system

This will be my second opportunity to vote for pres. and again I am not thrilled with either candidate (to say the least). I would vote for a third party, but as we all know voting for a third party is basically taking a vote away from one candidate thus helping the other.
Many people run into this problem and basically we are stuck. This is exactly why I say we need a new voting system. Most people fall into the trap of believing that the way we cast votes is the only fair way and is the best.
Ours is actually one of the worst ways to have an election, more people will be unhappy more of the time. Instead of voting for one person, perhaps we could put them in order by which person we want most to least. doing this wouldn't take votes away from anyone persay, and would also let you vote for who you wanted. Another way is to have an election, then eliminate the person with the least amount of votes and have another vote with the remaining candidates until one is left. This may be tedious, but again more people would be able to vote for who they wanted without feeling bad about it.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this matter?

Originally posted by vapor
I would vote for a third party, but as we all know voting for a third party is basically taking a vote away from one candidate thus helping the other.

If everyone thinks like that then we will be stuck with the Democrats Republicans forever Which would suck and is exactly what both those parties want. If the american people showed strong support for a third party it will be the beginning of the end for those parties.

i totally agree, the only problem is that not enough people will vote for the third party. the only reason i can see doing it with the present system is if you live in a state that is already decidedly dem or rep. in a situation like that voting third party doesn't really take away any votes because the state is already so overwhelmingly one sided. this is why i say we need a new system.

I very strongly believe that the problem is less with third parties being powerless and more with society's perception that they are.

If people just went out and voted for who they wanted regardless of whether they thought it would effect anything, we probably would have one or two of the "third parties" that stood out if not as much than close to as much as the dem's and rep's do now.

If all the people aren't voting, no voting system is truly working.

Having multiple elections would cost WAY too much money, if we did that I could easily see taxes needing to raise just to pay for it (add cost of paper to beurocracy and it skyrockets...)

I could see runoff voting (ranking candidates in an order) as a good option.
There are two ways to do it, Some people say we should rank a 1-3 and each would get a number of points depending on their order.
I had also heard that you should vote for 3, and if #1 didn't get it, the people who voted for #1 will have their second vote counted, etc.

This second way to me seems extremely unfair seeing as how that way some people would get a second chance to vote while other people's wouldn't... if you spend a while thinking about it I'm sure you could figure out situations where it would be debatable whose first vote should be counted and whose second vote- and how different the outcomes could be.


I do like the system we have now, people just need to stand up for what they want rather than sit back and complain that it isn't being handed to them.
If you add a vote to a third party this election- how many more people will see their numbers up from the past and vote for them next election with new hope?

[edit on 9-8-2004 by blanketgirl]

i also agree ranking would probably be the most effective method.

i wasn't trying to say we should have multiple elections persay. that would be way to costly. i was just throwing the idea out there, many people don't even realize there are other ways besides simple majority rules (electoral college could be a whole new thread). i am also open to all new ideas, i'm sure there are thousands of systems i'm not aware of.

i also think we should NEVER again allow privatization of vote counting.