Reply #172: Right math, wrong question

[RichardRay]

...unless everybody in both states votes.

I'll go along with you as long as we

declare a national holiday with pay on which to vote,

declare an alternate national holiday with pay for those with critical jobs who still can't make it to vote on the appointed day,

provide another alternate for those who are sick or disabled on the appointed day,

provide a secure and auditable way to vote remotely for those out of the country on the appointed day,

create a system that insures every member of the electorate has a deep and complete understanding of the issues,

provide a complete and exhaustive background investigation on all everybody whose name goes into the hat (the quality, completeness and veracity of which must be acceptable to all)

and levy substantial penalties against anyone who chooses not to vote.

That's a five minute list, when you've got those problems figured out I'll spend five more minutes and come up with as many more. The point is that there is NO fair way to do this, there are only the ways people choose, and right now we have some that have been chosen. It's certainly not the Platonic ideal of nominee picking methods, but we gotta pick one somehow and this is how we do it.

For every complex question there is at least one answer that is simple, elegant and wrong. I'll give you simple and elegant...