Preference Voting:

Since Sam explained how the system in Pierce County was set up, I won't reiterate that. :)

Primary voting in WA state - it was changed to this new system because both the Dems & the GOPs (although the GOPs were the first to complain) felt that a certain block of voters would vote for the 'weakest' opposition candidate...thus setting up a campaign where, i.e., the 'weakest' GOP would run against the "strongest" Dem. It was pure bunk but once the GOP tried to change things the Dems got involved too. (One reason I don't belong to ANY political party.)

Initially, they had it changed so that, in a Primary election (NOT a General Election), the voter had to declare themselves as GOP, Dem or IND. That meant that you received a ballot on which ONLY GOP, Dem or IND candidates were shown. The voters of WA state felt that this was an invasion of our privacy...not to mention the fact that our state does not require a citizen to choose a party when registering to vote. After much haggling, the current system came to be. I'm not yet sure how I like it. Only time will tell.

Just as an FYI, Sam is a woman.

I don't feel it's a bad idea...just not a wonderful one. IMHO it could lead to some very confusing outcomes...with some people technically 'voting more than once' while others only voted once. Unless people were forced to 'rank' all candidates (which Preference voting does not do). If I don't like a candidate, I don't even want to rank them!

Save money...possibly...reduce choice, IMHO, defnitely. I just feel that less people would run for office under such a system and 'name recognition' would become too important a factor.