The political organization Move On is sponsoring a kind of online 2-day “straw poll” (Tuesday and Wednesday) to determine if (and potentially who) they will endorse for the Democratic nomination for the US presidential
The design of their online ballot is very interesting… The first column asks you to pick a single candidate, and the second column asks you to pick *all* of the candidates you would *enthusiastically* support if they were the eventual Democratic nominee. Basically in the first column they are trying to pick a single winner, and in the second column they are trying to get an idea of which of the nine candidates fits into the mainstream of the Move On constituency – and which do not.
The difference between these two columns is simply the use of Radio Buttons versus Checkboxes.
In case any of you aren’t card-carrying you-know-whats like me, herI’ve included’s a screenshot saving you the trouble of actually registering to vote.
If you do want to vote, here’s the official link.
They will endorse the candidate who gets over 50% of the vote, if there is one. This is a novel way of allowing members of a political organization to have an impact on their group’s presidential endorsement. It is thought that this “online primary” might even end up with many more actual voters than the New Hampshire primary will. This phenomenon – using the internet to determine real endorsements – is a precursor to the real thing. It’s something to keep an eye on as we move towards electronic voting for real public offices.