Issues

From BeyondPolitics

Issues involved in implementation of proxy voting -

Contents 1 Proxy voting vs. answer recommendation 2 Pay of proxies 3 Obligations of proxies 4 Openness of proxies' votes 5 Require proxies to consent to being appointed by ANY principals 6 Require proxies to consent to being appointed by SPECIFIC principals

Proxy voting vs. answer recommendation

Should proxies actually VOTE on legislation, or should they simply ADVISE their principals how to vote? If the latter, how will this be implemented? The whole point of the proxy is that voters do not have time to sift through all the legislation. Moreover, voters can already obtain information on how to vote from interest groups of their choice, via internet. Options:

• Proxy voting
• Answer recommendation

Pay of proxies

Assuming a volume of legislation equivalent to that of a typical state legislature, the How shall the proxies be paid? Options:

• Exclusively through donations – This avoids the need for coercive taxation (unacceptable to libertarians) but could lead to accusations of bribery.
• At taxpayer expense – It could be specified that proxies with a certain number of principals – e.g., 1,000 – would automatically entitle a proxy to a salary paid from the treasury.

Obligations of proxies

Shall a proxy be obligated to vote, or can he abstain? What if someone becomes proxy for 1,000 people and simply takes his pay and shirks his responsibility? Options:

• Mandatory – Just as legislators are required by law to attend the session, proxies (especially those with large numbers of principals) should be required to vote.
• Optional – Proxies who fail to fulfill their duties should be held accountable through the power of their principals to revoke the proxy, and through the damage to the proxy's reputation that could result from such dereliction of duty.

Openness of proxies' votes

Should votes cast by proxies be public, or private? If public, then it will be all the easier for principals to monitor their proxy's activity and hold them accountable. It will also be possible for a potential principal to scrutinize the voting record of a proxy and decide based on past behavior whether to appoint him as his proxy. Theoretically, proxies' voting records could be kept a secret between proxy and principal. What if someone has 1,000 principals, however, and one of them spills the beans publicly about how his proxy has been voting?

• Open – Reveal the voting record of all votes cast by proxies.
• Open, if the proxy has a certain number of principals – E.g., if the proxy represents 20 principals, then his votes on legislation will be public; otherwise, they will be secret.
• Secret – All votes cast by all proxies will be secret.

Require proxies to consent to being appointed by ANY principals

This requirement would make it possible for people to avoid taking on a responsibility they do not want to discharge. Principals would not be able to nominate someone unless that proxy had indicated that they are willing to represent principals. Options:

• Require –
• Do not require –

Require proxies to consent to being appointed by SPECIFIC principals

Shall proxies be required to agree to being appointed by each specific principal who wants to appoint him, before being allowed to vote on his behalf? Acceptance of proxies could become a matter of routine, if a proxy wants to vote on behalf of as many people as possible.

• Required –
• Not required – This will make it possible for a proxy representing large numbers of principals to not know who exactly has appointed him as proxy, which could help create some secrecy.