MCCS1977

The Green Party candidate — who’ll likely siphon some votes from liberals angry at Democrat Casey’s conservative views on abortion, gun control, and other issues — has a real shot at making the fall ballot thanks to an effort funded with $66,000 in donations to the Green Party of Luzerne County (where Romanelli lives) that paid for his petition drive.

As you may have read over the last couple of days, it’s now being reported that many of these donors are allies of GOP Sen. Rick Santorum, who will benefit if disaffected Democrats defect to the Green Party. A most brazen ploy indeed, yet that doesn’t even begin to capture the stunning level of cynicism here.

On the homepage for his Pennsylvania Senate bid, Carl Romanelli leads of with an oldy but a goody, “The only wasted vote is one that is not cast with your values and beliefs behind it. Let’s stop wasting our votes on candidates that serve interests other than ours.” But with articles like those from Attytood and TMPmuckraker, anyone of sound mind and body might well be given reason to pause. What to do, vote your values, or oust Rickey boy?

There is another way.

The Borda Count:

Under the Borda count the voter ranks the list of candidates in order of preference. So, for example, the voter gives a ‘1′ to their first preference, a ‘2′ to their second preference, and so on. In this respect a Borda count election is the same as elections under other preferential voting systems, such as instant-runoff voting, the Single Transferable Vote or Condorcet’s method.

The number of points given to candidates for each ranking is determined by the number of candidates standing in the election. Thus, under the simplest form of the Borda count, if there are six candidates in an election then a candidate will receive six points each time they are ranked first, five for being ranked second, and so on, with a candidate receiving 1 point for being ranked last.

For the sake of this argument we’ll just assume that Romanelli stands for everything he says he does, “ending the occupation in Iraq, providing universal, single-payer health care for all Americans, defense of women’s reproductive rights, ending of the drug war along with establishing a more enlightened foreign policy, in compliance with international law,” and is not just political chaff for Santorum’s flailing campaign. So, this is how my vote would look:

1. Romanelli 2. Casey 3. Santorum

So, if I voted for Romanelli, and he did not secure a majority, my vote would then automatically go to Casey. I wouldn’t have to vote for Casey with the worry that a vote for the Green Party would be wasted, and that sad sack Santorum might be reelected. I could vote my conscience. I could vote for my values, many of which Bob Casey doesn’t hold. That is of course, if I were a Pennsylvanian. But the same scenario applies for the 2000 “Presidential” Election. Think on it.

See also:

http://www.fairvote.org/irv/

http://www.instantrunoff.com/

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0305-02.htm