The phrase "election method" is correct and usable in written English.
For example, "The election method used in this particular ballot was a ranked-choice system."
When the framers of the Constitution were trying to decide the method by which a chief executive would be elected one of the reasons for rejecting a direct election method was that there was not a way for voters from one state to get enough information about a candidate from another state.
Last December, they pushed for a new election method that was approved, along narrow racial lines, in a citywide referendum.
To convert this into an election method, count each candidate's stars or points, and the winner is the one with the highest average score (or the highest total score, if voters are allowed to leave some candidates unrated).
Instant runoff voting is fairer than the "vote for one" election method, and as Mr. Friedman points out, ranked-choice ballots let voters more freely and fully express their preferences.
"Some people say 'count every vote'; it'd be better if you just counted every legal vote," says Dino Rossi, a Republican who lost by a wispy 129-vote margin.Yet Washington is forging ahead with the very election method that helped to muddle that crazy race: postal balloting.
Letters are welcome via e-mail to [email protected] and balancesSIR—I beg to point out a couple of basic fallacies in your article on the merits (or not) of the election method for a reformed upper chamber of Parliament (Bagehot, May 8th).
There should be all kinds of election methods.
A constitutional amendment of Article II could provide for uniform election methods simply by emulating the fail-safe clause of Article I: for example, by providing that Congress should prescribe the time, places and manner by which electors should be included on the ballot and elected, and the method for settling disputed votes.
Writing on the election, a correspondent of the "Temps" says that he recently made the acquaintance of an American woman who has come to Paris specially to be present at the National Assembly, in order that she may compare French and American election methods.
Starting in the 1970s, the Attorney General commonly raised Section 5 objections to dilutive voting changes, including discriminatory annexations, redistricting plans, and election methods such as at-large election systems, runoff election requirements, and prohibitions on bullet voting.
In the 2007 general election, this method led to the eleventh constituency electing five MPs.
