Text 2723, 39 rader
Skriven 2010-01-07 09:11:32 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
   Kommentar till text 2679 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
Ärende: Voting customs
======================
Roy Witt wrote to Robert Bashe on Wednesday January 06 2010 at 12:07:

RW> So, for all intents and purposes, you don't have representatives that
RW> you vote for personally.

Actually you do, but as most people don't know the persons, they generally vote
along party lines. The ballots have the name of the candidate and his/her
party.

RW> Which would tend to make them indifferent to the opinions of the
RW> voters.

Not really, as an incumbent _can_ be voted out of office. It's just that only
one person from each party runs in an election, not several persons from the
same party. Thus the party is the main consideration, not so much the person.

On the other hand, there is an option for a person to run as an independent in
some cases, and in fact our present mayor - who has just been elected for his
third and final term (he wants to retire after this term) - is such an
independent. He was thrown out of the SPD (social democrat party) for mounting
an independent campaign for mayor years ago, and went on to win the election by
a landslide. The SPD candidate dropped out of sight and I've never heard of him
since. Our mayor also won the next two elections by large margins (76% and 63%
of the popular vote). I don't doubt that the SPD has been kicking itself ever
since for throwing him out of the party.

RB>> When you move, "your" representative also changes (at least on the
RB>> local and perhaps the state level) automatically.

RW> If I moved across town, my city council person might change, but not
RW> my state or federal representatives.

That would be the same here. The latter two would only change if you moved to a
different state.

Cheers, Bob

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