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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Maryland Republican Central
Committee Voting MethodologyTuesday, April 26th 2011
Marcus Alzona, MD State RCC MemberMaryland Legislative District 16
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Overview / Purpose
Discuss issues relating to recent voting
methodology proposals for the Maryland
Republican Central Committee
Propose a solution and way forward
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
PrimaryResponsibilities of Different
Republican Central Committees
National Republican Committee
Presidential, U.S. House / Senate
State Republican Central Committee
Governor, State House / Senate, etc.
Local Republican Central Committee
County Executive / Council, School Boards,
Mayors, etc.
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Purpose of Maryland State Republican
Central Committee (CC)
Elect Republicans at all levels (general goal shared at alllevels)
Primarilyresponsible for Governorship, StateLegislature, and state-wide offices
Note that how you become a state CC member (i.e.being elected to a county CC) is NOT the same as whatyou are responsible for as a state CC member (i.e. electRepublicans state-wide)
Federal elections as delegated/coordinated by the RNC Local elections as delegated/coordinated by the county
central committees
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Complex Voting Scheme 2011
(here-after referred to as Complex2011)
March 2011 Proposal by MDRCC By-Laws
Committee
Overly complex
Many variables, based on county
Requires spreadsheet to calculate votes
Ignores Population Differences and Trends
Perverse Incentives
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Proposed Complex Voting Scheme and
Population Realities
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23%
77%
Complex2011 Voting Strength
Baltimore, Montgomery, and Prince George's Counties and
Baltimore City
All Other Counties
56%
44%
Population
Baltimore, Montgomery, and Prince George's Counties and
Baltimore City
All Other CountiesSource: David Parker, March 2011
By-Laws Committee Spreadsheet
Source: United States Census Bureau
44% of Maryland gets 77% of the vote
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Problem with Division By County
No elections of state offices by county
State Senate seats have not been divided by
county for nearly 50 years (see Maryland
constitutional changes in the 1960s)
Votes for Governor are state-wide, there is no
Maryland Gubernatorial electoral college,
winning a county just gets you the raw votes Amplifies my county vs. your county
problem
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Wont Show Up Issue (LCD)
It used to be that a single member from somelarge counties had more voting strength than fivemembers of a smaller county and so theydecided they werent going to bother showing
up (rationale against LCD, as stated by some2011 By-Laws Committee members) State CC member from county A = 5x member from
county B
Identified as unfair and disruptive
Identified as the primary reason for people from thosecounties not showing up
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Wont Show Up Issue
(Complex2011)
New Complex Voting Scheme 2011 has the sameproblem, just with a change in the beneficiaries /victims If you were against LCD, then you should be against
Complex2011 as well All the same still applies (just with different A/B):
State CC member from county A = 5x member fromcounty B
Identified as unfair and disruptive Identified as the primary reason for people from those
counties not showing up
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Wont Show Up Issue
(Complex2011)
Exacerbates CC Member Recruitment/Attendance
Problems recruiting CC members in heavilyDemocratic areas
This is where we are being blown out do we really want todiscourage participation by potential members from theseareas?
Problems getting CC members from those areas toattend
Not Helpful: By the way, if you go to the state convention,you are only worth 1/5 of a vote
Potential Donor Problem
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
The Real Battle Lines: State Senate
Legislative Districts
Regardless of who draws the state legislative
district lines (it is what it is), these are the
boundary lines for the state legislative general
elections (i.e. why we are here)
Changes every 10 years
We need to be agile, adjusting immediately to the
new district realities when they happen (insteadof clinging to a structure that hasnt existed for
half a century or more)
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Perverse Incentives in Complex2011
If incentives encourage performance within acounty, it follows that it discourages sharingbetween counties (which is the opposite of whatwe need to do)
Discourages sharing of successful strategies If you share your methods with another county, that
other county may use your strategy and performbetter, reducing your own voting strength
Discourages helping elections in other counties Helping with an election in another county just means
less voting strength for you if successful
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Cross-County Collaboration Example
In a heavily Democratic Legislative District (LD) in alarge county, a Republican Party Activist and Donoragreed to run as the GOP 2010 MD State SenateCandidate
While participating in his own campaign, the candidatespent significant time and resources campaigning forfellow GOP candidatesin other counties (running inmore evenly split LDs / closer races)
This kind of for the whole state party spirit would bediscouraged by the Complex2011 Voting Scheme
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Complex2011 Voting Scheme Solves
Nothing & Ignores Reality
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Changing Maryland
Population andDemographics
Proposed Complex2011 Voting Scheme
but there is still time to change course.
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Solution: One-Person-One-Vote
Encourages Participation
You show up, you have a vote
You dont show up, you dont have a vote
Fair and Simple to Use No referencing tables or spreadsheets to figure
out if you have enough votes to pass a measure
Encourages Statewide Joint Effort At the state level, we are all in it together
Other state CC are partners not opponents
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
One-Person-One-Vote (Reality)
Based in Reality
Delegations are based on the number of state
legislative districts, adjusted to give small counties
a boost
Uses the reality of what we face in the general
elections, not the structure from the 1960s
Adjusts automatically every 10 years withchanging legislative districts
Approximately 123,000 people per LD
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MDRCC, MD LD16
One-Person-One-Vote (Small Counties)
Still includes bonus for smaller counties
when looking at it by State Legislative District
(i.e. the general election fight we have)
LD 37 = 24 state CC members (2 full county
delegations, 2 half county delegations)
5,000 people per state CC member
LD 16 = 6 state CC members (5 specific 1 general) 20,000 people per state CC member
Is 4x the voting strength not enough?
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Voting Method Comparison
Complex By-Laws Proposal 2011
Divides the party
Complex to use
Where do I staple my W-2?
Perverse Incentives
Discourages Collaboration
Maintains past problems
Just inverts the targets
Simplified One-Person-One-Vote
Based in Reality
Fair and Simple to Use
Encourages participationand collaboration
Automatically adjusts forchanging populations andlegislative districts
We already have thismethod by default nochanges required
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Stop Voting About Voting Schemes
One-Person-One-Vote is already our currentvoting scheme
Simple, Fair, Reality-Based
To keep One-Person-One-Vote, just vote againstany voting scheme
The By-Laws Committee Complex 2011voting scheme:
Has no real benefit
Causes Problems
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
BEYOND VOTING SCHEMES
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
Beyond Voting Schemes / Future
Voting about voting schemes is a distraction,
lets stop doing it and move on to real work
The following page contains an example idea
that attempts to address the real issue before
us (i.e. winning State races)
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC, MD LD16
State Legislative District Central
Committee Coordination
Propose that all state CC members residing withineach State Senatorial Legislative District meet atleast once annually (or more) to coordinate races/ candidates / efforts at the legislative district
level Note that this is an additional meeting, not meant to
replace current county and state CC activities
Based upon the idea that all MD RCC members are in
it together One-Person-One-Vote The perverse incentives of the Complex2011 Voting
Scheme discourage this collaboration
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Marcus Alzona
MDRCC MD LD16
State Legislative District Central
Committee Coordination (continued)
Particularly important for LDs that crosscounty lines
When asked, was told by CC members from
County A that they never hear from thepeople/CC/candidates from County B about theirshared LD, and that they dont know if County Beven tries to do anything about that LD race
County B said essentially the same thing aboutCounty A.see the problem?
Makes it an obvious state CC issue
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