The Green Party of Colorado welcomed Mohammed El-Leissy, an Austrialian Green Party member, on Monday, Jan. 24. A small delegation of Colorado Greens joined El-Leissy for breakfast in Denver to discuss Green issues and develop international understanding and friendship. Among topics discussed were approval voting and its pitfalls, and strategies for growing Green Party registration.
You can listen to a KGNU radio interview of El-Leissy at this link. KGNU Morning Magazine 2011-01-24
El-Leissy, the manager of community projects and outreach of the Islamic Council of Victoria, Australia, was visiting the United States for 21 days under the auspices of the Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. Their program is arranged by Mississippi Consortium for International Development (MCID Washington).
El-Leissy is one of Australia’s youngest imams; he is also running for Darebin City Council as an Australian Green Party candidate. During his time at the Islamic Council of Victoria, Mr. El-Leissy has established a volunteer program, worked with the National Australia Bank to set up a no-interest microfinance program for the Islamic community, and coordinated community information sessions in collaboration with the Victoria Police following counter-terrorism raids in 2009.
El-Leissy is interested in connecting with Muslim leaders involved in grassroots efforts as well as activists and organizations involved in social development and community capacity building. As a political candidate, he is also keen to meet with individuals involved in American political life, particularly those who share the values of the Australian Greens. In addition, as Mr. El-Leissy hosts community radio shows and Australia is experiencing heightened media saturation, he is fascinated by American on-line media and the 24-hour American media cycle.
Thank you very much for reaching out to the Green Party of Colorado, Mr. El-Leissy!
Approval Voting isn’t perfect, but I don’t think it particularly has any major “pitfalls”. And it’s massively superior to Instant Runoff Voting, especially if you don’t like having two-party domination.
http://www.electology.org/approval-voting-vs-irv
Also, here’s a great piece from the personal web site of Matt Gonzalez, Nader’s former running mate.
http://asitoughttobe.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/score-voting/
Approval has no major pitfalls? Really?? Well, if you ignore the fact that (1)it does not allow you to rank candidates in preference order but instead to give the same vote to candidates you love, candidates you like, and candidates you can barely tolerate (2) encourages dishonest bullet voting for your preferred candidate so it quickly reverts to plurality voting (3)unconstitutionally violates the one person, one vote rule, which is probably why (4) not one city, county or special district in the US uses approval voting for single seat election, then sure, it has no major pitfalls.
Other than that minor pitfall, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?