David Watkins recently shared this post about the passing of Dr. Jameson Quinn. I want to say a few things too.
Jameson and I “met” online as I was publishing my earliest work on the politics of electoral reform. That was just under a decade ago. We were learning things together, and I will miss him.
I will remember Jameson as an empiricist, strong small-d democrat, and unusually close reader. He approached our topic from the perspective of a statistician and supporter of cardinal voting methods. I approached it as a student of political parties and skeptic of the term “voting method.” These perspectives sometimes mix as well as oil does with water. Our exchanges were nonetheless friendly and highly productive.
One project we often discussed was his ongoing research and writing on his proposed PLACE voting electoral system. Matthew Yglesias covered it in a 2017 essay for Vox.com. PLACE was a concerted effort to take problems (and parties) seriously and find solutions. Here is how he described it at the time. The key move was to combine single-seat districts with proportional seat allocation — in the spirit of mixed-member PR.
PLACE voting is a proportional representation (PR) voting method — that is, a solution to gerrymandering that also handles demographic clustering. It’s designed to bring the advantages of PR — including not just a closing of that gap, but also increased turnout, improved minority representation and gender balance, reduction in mudslinging, and even a boost to grassroots organizing—without giving up any of the advantages of the current voting method—including simple ballots, local representation, clear and direct chain of accountability to constituents, an ability to vote out even entrenched party insiders if a scandal happens, and an incentive for “big tent” parties with a comprehensive platform rather than just single-issue splinter parties.
Jameson also understood the importance of pre-election coalition and frequently worked it into his reform proposals. PLACE above reflects this. So does Kristin Eberhard’s proposal for “delegated ranked-choice,” which Jameson recognized as a rule invented in the 1890s as the Gove system.