preferential voting

Submitted by Anne Julienne (Australia), May 1, 2016 at 00:56

As I've remarked in an earlier comment, I hate the compulsory voting we have here in Australia. However, I *do* like the preferential voting system and I'm thinking such a system might have served the Republican Party well in the primaries.

I note that Ted Cruz gained 10 of 13 delegates from the recent Virginia convention. As I understand this very complex system, these delegates are now pledged to vote for him in the second round *should there be a contested election*. At present, they must all vote for Trump on the first round because he gained the most votes at the primary back in 1mar. At that time, there were 5 alternatives to Trump, so 65% of the voters *did not want Trump*. So this 10 out of 13 is pretty representative of the voting public, given that Cruz is the only viable alternative to Trump left in the race.

It would have been interesting to see who would have gained 2nd and 3rd preferences in that vote. It would seem to me that Rubio's and Carson's preferences would have gone to Cruz over Trump but I could be wrong in this.

I note that Daniel would be so disgusted by a Trump triumph that he'd become an Independent instead of a Republican. Would he also vote for Clinton? Would he abstain (if no independent candidate was offered)?

I don't vote at all in US elections, so I can afford to be a casual armchair observer. There are both limitations and advantages to that.

If it did indeed come down to Trump vs Clinton, I'd prefer Trump. I'm basing this a lot on his AIPAC speech which came across as convincing. I'm quite sure Cruz would be much much better but even Trump would be better than Clinton, who would probably deliver something not much different from the last 8 years of Obama.

I have Israel chiefly in mind here. Assuming Netanyahu remains "the only game in town" (as Efraim Inbar has described him) then the future will continue to lie under his moral and political leadership. I'm sure he'd get on very well with either Clinton or Trump but I think Trump has the edge. His AIPAC speech showed that he could listen to the Israeli/Jewish narrative and that he could take enough of it in to be a good partner.

If I were a Jew or an Israeli, I could never trust Clinton.

Until (as they say) the fat lady sings, I'll hold out hope for Cruz but if Trump does win the nomination then I will pray that he can also triumph over Clinton. I know there are polls that say otherwise but voters do swing, after all.

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