Are U.S. elections valid?A brief psychometric exploration

of governance

Warning Signs

• Jimmy Carter monitors elections worldwide, but cannot monitor ours due to failure to meet international standards– Voting obstruction, ballot obstruction, paper

trail for ballots, majority rules

• First time since 1988 to have a new President who won with a majority of the popular vote

Are U.S. elections validity?

• What is validity?– Ability of an instrument to measure what it is

supposed to measure

• What is an election “supposed to measure?”– Candidate who will best live up to the values

and goals of most Americans

Common solution: Get out the vote

• Somewhere between naive and delusional

• Sample size is important for obtaining reliable results– Study with n = 100 is better than a study with

n = 20

• But a small representative sample is better than a large unrepresentative sample

• Decrease voting obstruction and discrimination

Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)

• Ensures winner gets a majority vote

• Each voter ranks their choice of candidates running for an elected office

• If their top choice isn’t among the top 2, go to their next choice, and so on

Fusion Voting

• Rather than simply voting for a candidate, people can vote for a candidate and a goal

• Candidates can be nominated on multiple parties– Democratic Party: Obama– Universal Healthcare Party: Obama– Liberal Hunters Party: Obama

• If a candidate doesn’t meet the party’s goal, next time the party chooses a different candidate, costing votes

Public Financing

• Method for nominating better candidates

• Prevents vested interests from dominating elections– Funding comes from public, rather than

corporations, Wall Street, credit card companies, big oil, health insurance companies, and military industries