Last Tuesday there were 21 candidates
on the ballot in the primary election
for mayor of Seattle. Here is the
vote total for the top six candidates
(as of Friday):
Jenny Durkan 28.7% (48,193) Cary Moon 17.4% (29,181) Nikkita Oliver 16.1% (26,946) Jessyn Farrell 12.6% (21,178) Bob Hasegawa 8.5% (14,198) Mike McGinn 6.6% (11,016)
The vote totals are available at:
http://projects.seattletimes.com/2017/primary-results/
These are not the final totals yet, but
they should be close to the final numbers.
The top two candidates in the primary
will advance to the general election.
However, note that the top two candidates
combined received less than half of
the vote. Considering how many candidates
were on the ballot this is not surprising.
A better system would provide for a three-
stage election, with the top four candidates
in the first stage advancing to the second
stage. Then the top two candidates in the
second stage would advance to the final
election. Note that the top four candidates
in this case have well over half of the
total votes.
One issue might be that voters
would not be interested enough to participate
in all three stages of the election. Although
that could be an issue for a race for mayor,
most likely voters would be interested enough
if this was the race for president. The
proposal for a three-stage presidential
election is described in the book
(Freedom, Opportunity, and Security).
……………..
–Douglas Downing
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……………..
douglasadowning 