re: "Let's say you are in round one. There is a HIGHLY qualified candidate in your triplet, and you want to win. So does the third guy. The two weaker candidates will vote for each other and the most qualified will, in effect, choose the person who moves on to the next phase. Sorry, more qualified candidate. You ARE the weakest link... buh-bye!"

This argument presumes an observer can stand outside the system and decide who is a 'HIGHLY qualified candidate'. Who is to make such a judgment?

The members of the triplets are humans. They have the strengths and frailties of humans. That they are fallible is a given. The 5,637,378 voting-eligible people in New Jersey (in 2004) would form 1,879,126 triplets. Some of those almost two million groups will make what are, in your opinion or mine, poor choices. However, people make choices based on their own opinion, not on yours or mine. The vast majority of them will make what are, for them, the proper decision.

The choice they make is a subjective judgment. We recognize that our judgment of people is not foolproof; sometimes we will choose the less-qualified person. That is why we atomize the electorate into a large number of very small groups; it increases the number of times candidates are examined. The effect is progressive; the further a candidate advances, the more that person has been examined and judged to have good qualities.

One may argue that the majority of those who advance will be people of poor qualities, but to do so is to assert that the people, in general, lack the ability to discern good qualities from poor qualities. If that were true, the people would be incapable of governing themselves, in which case discussing electoral methods is moot.

I think it is also important to recognize that in our present atmosphere of media-centric misdirection, obfuscation and deceit, we have no opportunity to exercise or apply judgment. Judgment, like all faculties, strengthens with use. When we institute an electoral method that allows us to use our judgment, we will learn to select suitable representatives.

Fred Gohlke