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Author: Santucci

Potential collision of “voter choice” and “majority rule”

Tomorrow is the in-person primary election in New York City. Polls variously expect Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani to win the Democratic mayoral nomination. In the background, the city’s charter commission is considering an overhaul of the mayoral electoral system. TLDR: one proposal would mandate two-candidate general elections.

We will see what happens in the primary. I wrote about the situation here.

For me, this episode underscores a tension in the world of electoral reform. On the one hand, many of these devices promise “majority rule.” On the other, they promise to make it easier to run for office without expectation of majority support. Some are drawn by the former idea, others by the latter.

If you are looking for a term to describe the form of RCV that the situation might bring forth, one option is “bottoms-up.” I wrote about it in this 2021 journal article.

Report on Portland’s first STV election

I have a new report with Kevin Kosar and Jaehun Lee of the American Enterprise Institute:

Key Points 

  • Portland, Oregon, used its decennial charter revision process to overhaul its method for electing the city’s legislators in 2022. 
  • The new system divided the city into four districts, with each district represented by three members selected through ranked ballots. 
  • Portland first used this new system in November 2024, and initial analysis indicates that it expanded the representativeness of the candidate pool and resultant council.
Read more…

A tool for teaching reading skills in social science

How can we make reading complex articles, writing about them, and doing science more approachable for undergraduates? Here are some thoughts in a new essay for Political Science Educator (first paragraph, lightly trimmed):

The Article Hunt (AH) is a tool for teaching students how to read academic articles quickly and research their own interests. It also can be used to cultivate scientific thinking, scaffold literature reviews, reinforce course concepts, show students how writing quality affects its usability, and provide other opportunities for active learning, including about methods. I have used it to these ends since Fall 2018. This essay describes the AH, how it evolved, the classroom teaching that supports it, some common challenges, and some potential uses. A template/worksheet is available on my website.

To see if the assignment might be doing what I’d hoped, I asked the following question on survey last semester: “To what extent do you agree with the following statement? The article hunt helped me focus on what is important in a reading.” 21 of 23 students agreed, and one left a suggestion that it be assigned before papers in future courses.

Have a look, and let me know what you think.

Fast potato

This is where the baked potato meets the potato skin.

What you need:

  • Nice russet potato
  • Oil to rub potato
  • Butter
  • Dry chives
  • Bacon bits (phony preferred)
  • Cheese of choice

Wash the potato. Cut it in half the long way. Coat both halves in oil, put them flat-side down on parchment paper, salt the backs, and bake at 450 F (230-235 C). Basically, do what Sonja says.

Test to see if the potato is done by poking it with a fork.

Step 1 is over.

Score both halves a few times.

Open up the slits a bit by squeezing from both ends. Add butter and chives (and bacon bits if you have them). Add cheese; I used cheddar jack but would have preferred sharp cheddar. Add more chives (and bacon bits, which I sadly didn’t have).

Put the dressed potato halves back into the oven until they look like the ones below (but with a nicer cheese). I suppose you could broil for a more dramatic effect.

Step 3 is over.