[osol-announce] [core-contrib-discuss] [ogb-discuss] Board Election 2009/Change Constitution results

[Dennis Clarke]

>>One thing is clear, no country or organization in any *democratic*
>>election will go out and count the registered voters ( N ) and then claim
>>a "vote" to be valid when less than 1% of N casts a ballot. Let's look at
>>an absurd case. The Government of The United States of America could hold
>>an election and determine a new president with the votes of only ten
>>people if only those ten were seen to cast a valid ballot. Is that
>>reasonable?  Hardly.
>
> I think you're wrong.

okay

> I know of no country who has a threshold on the number of votes; the
> reason is simple: must the current governemnt stay when not enough people
> vote?   No, terms end and even if only one person votes he gets to decide
> the new government.

That is correct but it is not called democracry. It is called fascism.

> Ballot initiatives are different; and there they typically have a
> threshold.  I believe that that threshold should be set on the "winning"
> party.  E.g., some countries require a certain turnout, say 50%,but
> then you can have outcomes like:
>
> 		50-0		You win
> 		25.1-24.9	You win
> 		25.1-24.8	You lose (nothing changes)
> 		49-0		You lose (nothing changes)
>
> others require a certain percentage in favor of a ballot initiative
> (say 30%)
> 		30-29		You win
> 		30-0		You win
>
> I believe the second mechanism is better because a boycot cannot be
> used as a weapon by the losing party.  (ANd, indeed, it would be better
> not to vote rather than voting NO)
>
>>Speaking clearly here, I think the vote we have in hand now indicates a
>>choice. It is now the task of the newly elected OGB to either call for a
>>new vote with clearly expressed terms and decision logic, OR simply
>> accept
>>the directive already expressed by nearly 50% of the voting population.
>
> Well, there's a rule and the rule is perhaps not very well thought out
> but that is the rule.
>

That sort of thinking is called "Bureaucracy" and it is why companies like
GM go bankrupt and why countries collapse.

I will not adopt that party line for anyone.

-- 
Dennis Clarke
sig du jour : "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will
eat him last.", Winston Churchill