toadfrog: Spot On re primaries. Which suggests there may have been something to be said for nomination by "professional politicans". / But: don't many, if not most, Commonwealth nations have parliamentary systems, hence "short ballots" in "national" elections? Vote for the MP, and that's about it? Compatible with paper ballots & hand counts, if desired. / Not like that in the U.S., *believe* me. We have *lonnnnggg* ballots, in most places. I'm all for the old reliable paper ballot/hand count---provided Americans, with our world-renowned cultural patience & our placid news media, are willing to *wait* for the official results. HA!

btw I believe Gerrymandering is not unique to the US, though the term was coined from the name of a politician from Rhode Island. What *is* a Rotten Borough, anyway? :) In Britain, e.g., it is also possible---and I believe it has occurred, right?---to get a PM whose party, collectively, ran second in the "national popular vote". We're not the only place whose chief executive is chosen indirectly.

Me, I kinda like Eire's multi-member-constituency single-transferable-vote system for electing the Dail. Now *that's* complicated! Full Employment for us Election Bureaucrats, sez I! Up the Eighth Count & Hurrah fer the Transfer Votes! Wot's the word from Dublin Central? Hey, we can wait. Ain'tcha never hoid of Irish Time? :)