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1: Smith, Warren D. warren.wds (in; gmail /dot- com;631-675-6128; 21 Shore Oaks Drive, Stony Brook , NY, USA 11790; CRV founder. Mathematician.
2: Kok, Jan jan.kok.5y (at- gmail /dot- com;Fort Collins, CO, USA 80528; CRV co-founder. Voting reform activist since 2000. Served as Troubleshooter for a large voting center in 2004 general election. Electrical and software engineer. Libertarian, but I believe that most alternative parties share several common goals that we should work on together, in particular, implementing better voting methods for public elections. Toastmaster. Currently doing public relations and recruiting for CRV in my spare time, but I would welcome help from others.
3: Ossipoff, Mike
4: Salomon, Joel C.
6: Frank, Michael P. Tallahassee, FL, USA 32303; Studied a little about voting theory during grad school. Strong programmer (Int'l ACM contest winner), but not up on all the latest whizzy software technologies. Democrat. Assistant Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at a College of Engineering. Background in computer science and electrical engineering. Joining because I feel strongly that the Range Voting movement is a noble cause, and I'd like to see it succeed. I would like to see an eloquent range-voting proponent land an nationally broadcast TV interview (perhaps Jon Stewart on the Daily Show would be sympathetic to the cause).
8: Cranshaw Simon
9: Heinonen Toni Finnish libertarian party, Finnish direct democracy organization (äänivalta)
13: Mckenzie jmckenzie_10 -in] hotmail (dot; com;514-768-9054; apple way, mcqueen, ca, USA 90210; i have no skills and just want to see the answer to one puzzle because its really bugging me and im not even an american.
15: Aaron Krowne Fields: computer science, mathematics, economics Research areas: digital libraries, information retrieval, social computing, machine learning Skills: technical management, programming, writing (formal and informal), investing I run a nonprofit and am involved in a number of commercial startup ventures, all centering around computer, web services, networks, and the like. My "day job" is Head of Digital Library Research, at Emory University, Atlanta, GA. It is a research faculty position. I lead the technical development of digital library grant projects. I am a member of no party, but I consider myself unadulteratedly libertarian, philosophically. I am joining because I am very much behind this cause. It is probably the most important issue for this country, but agonizingly, no one knows it. I dont have any changes to suggest yet. At some point you'll probably want to get someone with graphics skills to polish up the site, but I think you know that. In terms of outreach: I think probably the most effective thing there will be to do, as soon as possible, is to get buy-in from established progressive groups, to leverage them to evangelize the cause.
17: Kenck, Tony I am very interested in election methods, believing that our current system is the root of MANY evils.
19: Welland, Matt I am putting together a web site, http://www.kiatoa.com, where I hope to promote things that make for a better world. I was promoting approval voting but now that I understand range voting I will shift to it. Please add more material to your site that explains how range voting works. It took me too much time to figure it out. You can safely assume I will not be the only slow person accessing your site :-)
21: Foster, William K.
22: Meeks, W. Scott wsmeeks (at/ alum (.) mit [dot- edu;
24: Henriques Rodrigo rodrigoaga [at] gmail -dot, com;I would love to help CRV translate the entire site to protuguese. We do need to spread the word around .
25: Altay, Gabriel Im a physics PhD student who would like to do something that has a chance of impacting the world. What Ive read on the rangevoting pages makes a lot of sense to me, so Id like to help out if I can. Im on a campus, and Id like to do something that would get a large population of voters thinking about this issue. This is a GOOD idea
26: holzmeyer kristen dewick1 -at; hotmail [., com;809-2837; 6084 hester hall,
27: Stewart; Charles Bruce, Stewart; Charles Bruce charles ;at) constitutionalgov [dot- us;Sandy, Oregon, USA 97055; I have developed my own range-voting program. It is working and available for use here: http://christiancommonlaw-gov.org/index.php I would like to share my work with others of similar concern. People of sincere concern on these issues need to communicate with each other about optimal strategy for implementing these desperately-needed improvements. I am dedicated to this work. I request concerned people in this forum to contact me so that we may work together towards these ends. Charles ...
28: Lauser, Benjamin I'm a graduate student in the mathematics department at the University of Maryland, College Park. I think gerrymandering and plurality voting are obstacles to a truly representative government. Anything that reduces political gamesmanship and increases true choice for the population is a good idea.
29: Collins, Frank Fort Mill, SC, USA 29715;
30: Shreckhise, Scott
31: Unger, Stephen H.
32: Hiegel, Joseph Greenfield, WI, USA 53220;
33: bernard b carman, bernard b carman bbc /at) infinitygames (., com;asheville, nc, USA 28801; i'm an audio engineer, as well as a Macintosh consultant. i'm also a co-founder of the Libertarian Reform Caucus (LRC). over the past year or so, i've become more interested in learning about the strengths and weaknesses of various voting systems. as far as i can tell it seems RV is the way to go, unless there is no computer being used and only a simple voting round is warranted, in such case, Approval Voting would suffice. i am interested in the possibilities of advocating a test county in NC for RV. thus far, there is apparently an allowance for there to be a test of IRV in certain counties for certain races, and i'm looking into this. i hope to somehow encourage RV to also be considered. on this Range Voting site, i would like to see another example on the fron page like the one we have adopted on our LRC site. it uses the -5 to +5 scale, having 0 be neutral. while i understand the upshot is identical, i feel that using negative & positive numbers, the voter can more clearly understand how his vote affects the outcome. otherwise, using all positive numbers might give the impression that the voter is "giving" points to a candidate, unless they choose zero (0). also, it's nice to use an odd number of points on the scale, in order to create a perfect "neutral". also, i believe the simpler examples should be first. the 0-99 range is extremely excessive using such a fine degree of scale, and might serve to run off newcomers to the simplicity of RV. it seems RV would be a much easier sell to Americans across the board if the organization focused on keeping it as simple as possible. details regarding other versions of RV can be left to those who wish to "dig deeper". if RV was ever really implemented in political elections, it also seems that people would prefer a smaller scale - like a 5 or 7 point scale. most people cannot very accurately decide the difference between a +2 or +3 on the 11 point scale we've adopted in the LRC. if even a 7 point scale was adopted, it's so much easier to determine the range of approval/disapproval when there are only 3 points above and below the neutral (0). among polling several LRC members, the 5 point scale was preferred for simplicity, while i was pushing for a 7 point scale for a compromise. apparently, our webmaster was persuaded by some RV "gurus" to adopt the 10 point (or actually, 11 point) scale — i presume for consistancy with this website. regardless, i'm quite happy that there is a group of people advocating RV. i wish there was an easy way to convince the IRV advocates, which seem to have more momentum thus far. it seems relatively easy to convince most folks in general when they understand that they already know about RV from the Olympics, entertainment, the school grading system, movie rating, and rating the opposite sex! 8-)
35: Cooper, Matt Computer specialist, MBA, financial analyst. Done computer work on various campaigns since 79. Also interested in gerrymandering research. Have you pursued alliances with other election groups, such as league of women voters?
37: Paul Gordon, Paul Gordon I've never been political and largely ignored politics for most of my life. We're raised from birth to laud America as this special, wonderful place where morality and benevolence and democracy rules; last summer I was in for a shock when I finally started becoming interested in history and current events and realized how different this nation is from how we are encouraged to think of it. Even before Iraq, the US has engaged in the most frivolous, inexcusable, unconscionable massacres. The disconnect from what people think their government stands for, and the long-standing reality of our foreign policy appears to be a striking and massive failure of democracy. I became to care deeply about politics and asked why this could be. After a few months of research it seemed to me that the US is suffering from three major problems, the first of which may not be obvious but I would argue is the largest and greatest threat - monetary policy, a deeply compromised mass media, and a mostly broken democratic system. Range voting seeks to directly address one of these problems, and could possibly go a long way to solving the other two. I've reached the point in my life where it isn't enough just to work, I want what I do to mean something. I am rather experienced in software architecture (see my LinkedIn profile). I don’t know if there is a need for that in the CRV movement, but as I’m currently on sabbatical I’m free to do as I wish. I wouldn’t mind at all taking my life in a new direction that has nothing to do with computers. Do you need another volunteer?
38: Sauceda Salazar Eduardo
42: Lomax, Abd ul-Rahman Hey, you know! I am really just checking to see if I already registered.
43: Devin Ray Freeman I'm a member of the Libertarian Party, and an active member of the Libertarian Reform Caucus. I'm joining to offer my services for promoting Range. I'm a skilled and experienced translator. I've ample experience in Russian and Swahili translation. I'm currently capable though rusty in these. My Korean is currently very good. I'm willing and able to put pro-Range concepts into Korean.
44: Lawrence, John C j.c.lawrence [in] cox ,dot, net;Your website was brought to my attention by someone who was perusing my website - http://www.socialchoiceandbeyond.com - and noticed that I had come up with a similar method of voting to RV. I've since put in a link to RV. My background in common with many of your members is also in computer science. My primary interest is in proving that social choice (contrary to the work of Kenneth Arrow and almost 60 years of literature)is not impossible. This would then open the door, theoretically, to an acceptance of new voting methods and economic models. The current acceptance of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem leads to an acceptance of the status quo and a defeatist attitude toward changing current political and/or economic models. I think that extended choices, both politically and economically, will result in greater freedom and democracy. The computer has a definite role in amalgamating and processing the concomitant increased volume of data. I am conceptually developing a political/economic system I call preferensism based on expressing individual preferences over a range of options which is similar to range voting. I also have a blog - http://willblogforfood.typepad.com - which deals, partiall, with some of these same issues and ideas. I look forward to participating with you to carry these ideas forward!
45: Bramscher, Paul I've got a B.S. in Computer Science, and work as a programmer at the Digital Library Development Lab, in the Science & Engineering Library at the University of Minnesota. In addition to about 10 years in IT and a strong algorithmic background, I've got a B.A. in Anthropology & History with some graduate work. I've got a strong interest in current events, political philosophy, nature writing, and camping/roadtripping. My political inclinations have evolved from the Democratic Party, an interest in Marxism while attending college, then the Green Party. I've now begun to disengage from them and, in fact, wish that we had no such thing as partisanship at all. Just open debate between the merits multiple good policy alternatives -- not manufactured personalities, umbrellas, power cartels, etc. which partisanship seems to entail, curb, scope, etc. One of my chief concerns with the Green Party here in Minnesota is that they've not even really debated the merits of alternatives to the current voting system. IRV just seems to have popped out of nowhere, with no debate possible. They are gaining some momentum here (http://www.betterballotcampaign.org/node/254), but when I emailed a polite inquiry to one of the Green Party activists involved on it (Darrell Gerber), who I've met in-person before, I got no response whatsoever. It's rather odd -- we all agree that the current system is broken, but shouldn't we at least open an honest debate on something new? I tend to see the purpose of voting as a political sampling mechanism (ideally comprehensive/complete). Range is clearly superior mathematically for reasons spelled out well by others. It mainly boils down to the capability of capturing the distance between preferences, rather than collapsing them all into equal weight (IRV's artifice -- an unsound handicap). Under IRV, some distances are magnified, whereas others are minimized (blindly, by the system). I may be more of a math nerd than most people, but I can't see how IRV has eclipsed the (superior) Range Vote in light of these significant problems.
46: Welland Matthew I believe that there are three fundamental requirements for the United States to NOT degenerate into some form of fascism or religious or military state: 1. A strategy resistant voting methodology (of which I believe Range Voting is the most promising). 2. A taxation system that is just and fosters economic development, the only system that meets that criterion to the best of my knowledge is the Henry George single tax (www.henry-george.org). 3. An education system that teaches a wide range of ideas and viewpoints while not necessarily expecting or requiring students to agree. I am building a web site which will (hopefully) illustrate the best known ways to meet those criteria by embodying them in the fabric of the site itself. The ultimate goal is that the site achieves stable self governingship and I can safely release it from my control without it degenerating into a flame-infested mess. The current (broken) incarnation is at www.kiatoa.com but a new version is under development. I will be building range voting into the new site and will point back to rangevoting.org for reference.
48: Kolar Miroslav
51: arumugam vadivel
52: plunkett, michael o. michaeloplunkett [in, hotmail ,dot; com;The right to vote is not mentioned in the constitution. It is derived from the right of association for the redress of grievances. Range voting is the best system I know of to permit voters to demonstrate true support of all parties and candidates, which promotes the right of association. I have long thought any restrictive voting system can and should be challlenged in court for the above reason. JD Florida '66
54: Ken , PA, USA 18901; I am a concerned citizen outraged by the current state of electoral politics. CRV seems to offer a realistic way to quickly and measurably improve the voting system and re-engage Americans. If range voting were ever to be adopted I think millions more Americans would go to the polls and our process would be more responsive to the people as opposed as to corporations and special interests. I also support publicly funded elections and/or blind trusts for contributions to a candidate such that they will never know where campaign contributions come from. I don't have any particular political or organizational skills, but I am willing to help promote this concept in my area.
56: Baumann Eduard Recreational geometric problems
58: Vaughn, William 585-271-7246; 64 Beekman Pl., Researcher in Neurology at Univ. of Rochester Interested in voting theory, apportionment, redistricting issues. Degree in mathematics. Independent voter. The more I learn about RV, the more I like it. Was on the IRV bandwagon several years ago until I found out more about it. At least it has stirred up some action for voting reform. Just have to figure out how to make those people realize they need to switch to something better, such as RV. After IRV, hoever, I switched to Condorcet and then Borda. Still think that Borda is the best preference-ballot system as long as "indifferent" preferences are allowed. I've noticed that most descriptions of Borda don't allow this. I have developed a system I call the "Bell-ballot" system that extends preference voting and uses a Borda-like method for finding the "best" aggregate preference(which can be "partial"). Hoping to use your bulletin board to present my ideas. Also I want to find out some of the puzzle answers :-)
59: Bottman, Nate natebottman (at) gmail -dot, com;(206) 526-5777; 6031 50th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA, USA 98115-7703;
60: Baumann Robert
61: Konecky-Chad I'm a journalist interested in the range voting movement
62: Katina
64: Buck, Will
67: Rogers I'm an attorney who reveres our Constitution, but I do dislike our current system of voting on both a local and federal level and would like to see some effort made towards amending the Constitution to avoid farces such as the 2000 election. Range voting sounds very interesting.
68: Baldwin, Gary
69: Boschert, Tyler
71: Swearingen, Worth I have no special skills, but I do have an immense frustration with the anti-democratic biases of current voting system. Right now, I'm trying to decide whether to vote conscience or lesser of evils in the Democratic primary. In the fall, my vote will mean nothing, but I'll cast it anyway.
72: Zuckerman Evan I'm a Floridian lawyer who is tired of having our state be the laughingstock of the political community and also frustrated with the resistance to fairness and equity in governmental operations.
74: Jaroski, Mark I can do computer programming in a number of languages, notably Perl and PHP, C and C++, and have experience building large websites, in a midsize to large team environment. I've been working a lot with RDF and other semantic web data handling, mining, and processing techniques. I've worked for international organizations, and have gained some insights on the nature of beurocracy, and diplomacy.
75: Neill, Jason I'm actually just joining to get accsess to the puzzles to see if my system can beat the puzzles that range voting can't.
77: Gohlke, Fred fredgohlke /at- verizon /dot] net;732-541-7029; 30 Bernath Street, Carteret, NJ, USA 07008;
79: Rudd, Jack
81: Baumann Eduard Hi Warren, I made a mistake in my last e-mail. In Puzzle #66 T4 is not best (not T5). Kind regards Ed
83: Lederer Sol
84: Dickinson, Robert Sewickley, PA, USA 15143; Interested in better participation by populace in elections and in increasing satisfaction with electoral system by increasing options and increasing election of compromise candidates and decreasing two-party domination. I can offer my skills in programming: both desktop and web systems.
87: Weller, Ian Skills: One year of college-level statistics, web design and programming, Linux (Fedora- and Red Hat-based distros), Python, PHP, MySQL, (X)HTML, CSS.
88: Gatton, Phil I am a politically independent professional six sigma black belt (read: statistics wonk). I have long been frustrated by a voting system that narrows choice and marginalizes important minorities. Every election, it seems, turns into a false dichotomy that masks what people really think. The idea of range voting needs to get more attention on the national stage. It will take a long time for the system to change, so the sooner the idea gets out there, the better.
90: Mendoza, Gabriel
91: Freeman Devin Ray
93: Richardson, Greg Ph.D. economist, old student of Social Choice theory. I find what you're doing here pretty exciting. I'm teaching a course in Game Theory, with a detour into "strategic voting" situations this semester.
97: Hirsch-Shell, Dylan I'm currently a PhD student in neuroscience at UCLA. I earned a BS in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and a BS in Brain & Cognitive Sciences from MIT in 2003. I can write computer programs, read and understand mathematical arguments, and write fairly well. I came across CRV randomly while reading the comments on Digg.com about an article on Cynthia McKinney endorsing IRV. Politically speaking, I recently became a member of the State Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party in California in order to help secure their nomination of Ralph Nader for President and Matt Gonzalez for Vice President in 2008. I'm hoping that I might be able to convince the P&F Party to adopt range voting at their next convention (they currently use STV) and possibly leverage the party infrastructure to help initiate a drive to get the CRV's ballot initiative on a future California state ballot. As of yet, I'm not sure how feasible either of these goals are.
99: bothwell, charles I am a strong advocate for discontinuing gerrymandering. How can I help make a difference?
101: Carson, Matt I agree that a change in voting system would result in a massive improvement. I also agree that I don't know how to move forward with it. I'm not totally convinced that advocating range over approval is the best way forward, simply because it'd be harder to teach people range, and approval requires absolutely no change to existing plurality ballots (your demo has 10 buttons per candidate, most ballots I've seen have one...) But I have thought about this a lot, and I have a counting system for approval with multiple candidates that I think would work. (Would let us fix gerrymandering at the same time) And I'd love to figure out a way to make progress getting range or approval adopted.