The purpose of this half-baked idea is to ensure that no voters are disenfranchised by maliciously drawn voting district borders, without throwing away voting districts.

It would be good for choosing lawmakers for a congress, parliament, etc.

First, each political party holds a primary election, where members of the party vote who live in a district vote to choose that party's candidate for that district.

Ideally, the primary uses instant runoff elections, but that is not required.

Second, when the election proper occurs, each voter who lives in the district votes chooses one candidate who he wants to be one of his districts' legislators.

If a candidate received at least 1 vote, he becomes one of that districts' legislators.

The elected congress / parliament / whatever will almost certainly end up with nearly equal numbers of lawmakers from every political party.

To make the group of lawmakers functional, the key aspect of "Interactive Representation" is adopted:

Each lawmaker has a voting power equal to the number votes which got him into office.

If the minimum threshold of votes needed to make someone a candidate is higher than 1 vote, then losing is possible, in which case ballots in the general election should allow ranked choice or instant runoff.
-- goldbb, Nov 11 2023

Interactive Representation https://en.wikipedi...tive_representation
Governance system in which elected officials have the same number of votes as the number of people that voted for them. [goldbb, Nov 11 2023]

Stochastic voting system Stochastic_20voting_20system
Similar intent [Loris, Nov 11 2023]

Yes I think write-ins have to be allowed.

If write-ins are not allowed, then every potential candidate has to register as a candidate in advance, to have their name on the ballot paper.

Then if the registration process is open, you will get hundreds of candidates putting their names forward. I mean I would put my name forward as an independent candidate, wouldn't you? So the ballot paper would have hundreds, if not thousands of names on it.

If the registration process is not open, then you are starting to bias the system. e.g. charge a registration fee or something.
-- pocmloc, Nov 11 2023


Sounds too complicated - I'm voting against it.
-- xenzag, Nov 11 2023


I was going to ask who this Gerry fellow is and why does he mander, so I looked up the etymology of the word and well, Gerry an actual dude.

"Gerry, governor of Massachusetts, was lampooned when his party redistricted the state in a blatant bid to preserve an Antifederalist majority. One sprawling Essex County district resembled a salamander, and a newspaper editor dubbed it the Gerrymander."

The moral of the story is that nothing really manders.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Nov 11 2023


I don't see a reason to forbid either write in candidates or pre-registration.

For pre-registration, a would-be candidate might need a number of signatures by voters who live in the voting district.

The ten or twenty would-be candidates who have the most signatures would be added to the ballot.

Actually, now that I think about it, a district might end up with an absurd number of independent legislators, all getting government salaries...

I don't know the best way to address that.
-- goldbb, Nov 11 2023


//those who really want to serve//

Wealthy retirees?

Nothing against wealthy retirees, but this is the classical Council-of-Elders / Senate / Gerousia model - very widely known to exist, has well- known drawbacks.
-- pertinax, Nov 12 2023


OK the flaw in this idea is the voting for candidates.

Everyone wins, i.e. everyone is a Member of Parliament, is entitled to attend parliament, speak, and vote.

Salary is replaced with a Universal Citizen's Income.

Obviously everyone can't fit in the House of Commons, so move Parliament to somewhere with a big enough space to accommodate everyone. Salisbury Plain, perhaps.

Everyone who turns up is in.

Obviously the first business is to elect a Speaker. There also need to be clerks.

Not sure how the voting system would work.
-- pocmloc, Nov 12 2023



random, halfbakery