"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door"
That appealing notion might have been justified when Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote the words in 1855, shortly before the civil war began.
But most commerce was local then. The internet did not exist and there were no televisions or radios. And what little advertising there was, lacked the psychological sophistication behind it today.
As a practical matter, during the early 19th century, a typical person's world rarely extended beyond the nearest community. News and opinions spread across that much smaller world mostly by word of mouth; there was no need to hire an advertising firm.
But in this larger, now global world, a new and better mousetrap could very easily go unnoticed. At the same time, the world could be beating a path to purchase a much inferior mousetrap due to its well-funded professional promotion.
If you have followed this series of articles, you might have guessed that "a better mousetrap" serves here as metaphor for BAV, the Balanced Approval Voting system.
BAV first occurred to me in 2014 and soon afterwards, I had a EUREKA! moment as I perceived the potential BAV has for undermining a two-party duopoly. That would at least dull the sharp edge of the toxic polarization that our society now suffers.
Subsequently, I did learn that others had mentioned this voting system and given it other names. That did not seem particularly surprising or important; it still seemed clear that too few people had ever given this voting system more than a passing glance. It was all too easy (though inaccurate) to simply dismiss BAV as merely one of the many score voting systems.
BAV clearly deserved much more attention than it had received. There seemed no alternative to accepting that as my personal challenge since it seemed hard to imagine that anyone else would.
That is the back-story of why I have written this series of articles. In writing them, I have come to more fully appreciate how BAV is such a superior voting system, and I have done my best to communicate that understanding to others.
I want to express my gratitude to Rob Kall and to OpEdNews for publishing these articles.
These efforts have had some success. At a minimum, four thousand people are now aware of BAV and judging from the number of downloads of these articles (Nearly 180,000) BAV must hold more than a passing interest from many people who know of it.
But clearly it is wrong to claim that the would is beating a path to BAV's door. And additional articles are not likely to change that. That will not happen without an aggressive advertising campaign.
An all-too-common belief is that ranked-choice voting is the best alternative, probably the only alternative to plurality voting.
But there are many other voting systems to choose from. Even for just range voting (also called score voting), there are infinitely many variations. But few people have even heard of these other voting systems. BAV, for example, has had no serious promotion aside from these articles.
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