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[OM] Re: [OT] Re: Canada Day

Subject: [OM] Re: [OT] Re: Canada Day
From: Andrew Gullen <andrew.gullen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 15:19:02 -0400
on 2004/07/03 12:17 PM, Gregg Iverson at golftooter@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> No complaint if a minority win?  Notice the complaints generated
> because  the electorial college "picked" a president who had a (very
> slight) minority.

A minority with a plurality (< 50% but more than anyon else) doesn't cause
complaints, although it behooves a politician to recognize that he/she
hasn't been given a mandate for anything radical.

Where the complaints come is when the winner gets fewer votes than the loser
(I think you folks are familiar with this), or when the politicians take
this as a mandate to do things the majority don't want (we had a situation
in 1988 where a slim majority voted against an option on a serious issue,
but got screwed by vote-splitting).

These situations are very damaging to democracy, as they undermine people's
buy-in, which is based on fairness.

Andrew


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