Voters Should Rank Ballots to Give Candidates a Chance

The key to the Undergraduate Council elections is the transferable voting system that allows voters to rank their selections for president and vice-president. I encourage all voters to remember this when voting and to rank more than one choice.

Although I disagree with the staff editorial from yesterday ("Haynes #1, Nelson #2 for President; Price for V.P.," Dec. 9) in that Philip R. Kaufman '98 should be ranked first, followed by Elizabeth A. Haynes '98 and Eric M. Nelson '99 (the critique of Lamelle D. Rawlins '99 was 100 percent on target), it is an excellent illustration of why this aspect of the system is so important. To put it simply, the election will come down to being a choice between two of the top five people listed in yesterday's Crimson poll: Kaufman, Haynes, Nelson, Benjamin R. Kaplan '99 or Rawlins. This makes it all the more important that you vote for at least two or three people.

For example, if you rank someone not in this group first, and list no second choices, your vote will be lost if and when candidate X exits the race. If however, you rank candidate X first and then Kaufman second, Kaufman will become your first place vote upon candidate X's exit. It is therefore imperative that you strongly consider voting for a candidate who has a fighting chance of going the distance.

This of course becomes tricky when you are deciding between the top five candidates. I would therefore suggest that you consider who you do not want to be president and rank the other strong candidates before that person. Crude though it may be, such a strategy will most likely ultimately pay off to help elect the president that the majority of the campus can agree on.

Of course, the best way to avoid a skewed outcome is to rank all candidates, one through 12. No matter how you decide to vote, please just remember that the only way the council can ever become a more effective student government is through your participation processes such as this election. --Wes Gilchrist '97   The writer is a two-year councillor and one-time presidential candidate