Approval Voting Campaign

It is common for political groups with similar political aims to become bitter enemies if they support different tactics for achieving those common aims. This is because they perceive themselves as being in competition for the same set of hearts and minds.

In my experience, however, it is possible for such groups to open a dialog and discover ways to work together. The liklihood is excellent that they can do so as long as the leaders remember the old saw about "a hoise divided" and work diligently to communicate to their membership that there is a plan for cooperation.

So I am developing a plan for cooperating with the IRV movement, which only seems right given that their movement is developing some traction while Approval Voting is currently just a blip on the radar screen. This plan includes having the Approval Voting movement act as a foil for the IRV movement to help develop controversy about voting systems. (The media loves controversy.)

Additionally we may be able to develop a joint strategy whereby each movement targets a different set of states for enactment of voting system reform. This harkens back to the days when the U.S. percieved itself as 50 different experiments in democracy and best practices proliferated based on experiences in individual states.

BTW, my contact list is expanding and replies are slowly arriving. All of the replies are quite positive thus far. Today I meet with Rob LeGrand for lunch and work on the incorporation papers.