EM-list archive

On February 15, 2021, the election-methods mailing list (the "EM-list") is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The EM-list is a mailing list that was started in 1996 and continues to host discussions with electoral system experts and activists.

Purpose

The list has long been intended a place for the discussion of the nitty-gritty details of single-winner election reform, the relative merits of different proportional representation systems, and the technical underpinnings of all election methods. "election-methods-list" discussions tend to be technical in nature (or at least, very laden with jargon), with the ultimate goal of providing recommendations and educational material to the electoral reform movement.

History

The list was started in 1996 by Rob Lanphier.. Rob Lanphier is "User:RobLa" on this wiki</ref>. It was started as an unofficial spinoff to the "ER-list", which was more concerned about promoting single-winner STV than diving into the weeds about the theory of electoral systems.

The first message

Subject: New "election-methods" list
From: Rob Lanphier
Date: Thu Feb 15 21:34:05 PST 1996
To: [elections-reform, election-methods]

I'm starting up an "election-methods-list" list to discuss single-winner
reform, the relative merits of different PR systems, and the technical
underpinnings of all election methods. This list is intended to
compliment, not to replace, the existing "elections-reform" list.

Please continue to discuss the various electoral reform movements in the
U.S. and throughout the world in the "elections-reform" list.
"elections-reform" is still the best forum for discussing strategies used
in reform campaigns, specific legislation addressing reform, and
educational material about reform.

What is the difference, you ask? "election-methods-list" discussions will
most likely be more technical in nature, with the ultimate goal of
providing recommendations and educational material to the members of
"elections-reform". There have been complaints in the past that
discussions on "elections-reform" have been too technical, and
"election-methods-list" has been created to offload the more prolific
technical discussions to "elections-reform". It lets folks use
"elections-reform" to stay abreast of current activity in electoral
reform without fear of their inbox exploding.

To subscribe to "election-methods-list", send mail to majordomo at eskimo.com
with no subject line (any subject will be ignored), and the following one
line in the body of your message:

subscribe election-methods-list

My apologies to anybody who stumbled on the web page that I set up a week
ago at http://www.eskimo.com/~robla/cpr/election-methods.html and tried
to subscribe (and failed, because the list didn't exist yet). In the time I
was waiting for the list to get set up, I set up the web page.
Everything should *now* work according to the instructions on that page.

That's all there is to it. Let me know if you have any questions about
the new list.

Thanks,
Rob Lanphier
[<insert Rob's old email address here>]
http://www.eskimo.com/~robla [<< Rob's old website]

1996

^^ That's not the only message that was sent in 1996. See the following links for other messages:

• February: (Thread), (Subject), (Author), (Date), (1996-February.txt.gz)

See the rest of the 1996 archive here: https://electorama.com/em/archive.html#1996

• <A HREF="065327.html">New "election-methods" list </A><A NAME="65327"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="065328.html">use of "who" inquiry </A><A NAME="65328"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="065329.html">[EM] STV ballot question </A><A NAME="65329"> </A> Ed Still
• <A HREF="065330.html">Message from Jim Lindsay </A><A NAME="65330"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="098092.html">[EM] STV ballot question </A><A NAME="98092"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="065331.html">[EM] closed/open list hybrids? </A><A NAME="65331"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="065333.html">[EM] uuencoding and ftp (was Re: Are all of us able to browse web?) </A><A NAME="65333"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="098094.html">[EM] closed/open list hybrids? </A><A NAME="98094"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="065335.html">[ER] Nader poopoos prop rep?! (fwd) </A><A NAME="65335"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="065336.html">[EM] ER/EM FAQs </A><A NAME="65336"> </A> DEMOREP1 at aol.com
• <A HREF="098097.html">[EM] ER/EM FAQs </A><A NAME="98097"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="065338.html">[EM] Voting Paradoxes </A><A NAME="65338"> </A> DEMOREP1 at aol.com
• <A HREF="065339.html">[EM] Defects in various election systems </A><A NAME="65339"> </A> DEMOREP1 at aol.com
• <A HREF="098100.html">[EM] Defects in various election systems </A><A NAME="98100"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="098101.html">[EM] ER/EM FAQs </A><A NAME="98101"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="065343.html">[EM] CVD home page </A><A NAME="65343"> </A> Ed Still
• <A HREF="065344.html">[EM] What is PR? </A><A NAME="65344"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="065345.html">[EM] Multiple Same Choices </A><A NAME="65345"> </A> DEMOREP1 at aol.com
• <A HREF="098105.html">[EM] Multiple Same Choices </A><A NAME="98105"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="098106.html">[EM] CVD home page </A><A NAME="98106"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="098107.html">[EM] Multiple Same Choices </A><A NAME="98107"> </A> Mike Ossipoff
• <A HREF="098108.html">[EM] Multiple Same Choices </A><A NAME="98108"> </A> Mike Ossipoff
• <A HREF="098109.html">[EM] Defects in various election systems </A><A NAME="98109"> </A> Matthew Shugart
• <A HREF="098110.html">[EM] Defects in various election systems </A><A NAME="98110"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="065352.html">[EM] New Hypermail Archive </A><A NAME="65352"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="065353.html">No subject </A><A NAME="65353"> </A> DEMOREP1 at aol.com
• <A HREF="065354.html">[EM] MSC reply </A><A NAME="65354"> </A> DEMOREP1 at aol.com
• <A HREF="098114.html">[EM] MSC reply </A><A NAME="98114"> </A> Rob Lanphier
• <A HREF="098115.html">[EM] Multiple Same Choices </A><A NAME="98115"> </A> Lucien Saumur
• <A HREF="098116.html">[EM] MSC reply </A><A NAME="98116"> </A> Mike Ossipoff
• <A HREF="098117.html">[EM] Multiple Same Choices </A><A NAME="98117"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="098118.html">[EM] Defects in various election systems </A><A NAME="98118"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="098122.html">[EM] Defects in various election systems </A><A NAME="98122"> </A> Matthew Shugart
• <A HREF="065360.html">[EM] (Fwd) [SW] Outline-driven group writing </A><A NAME="65360"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="065361.html">[EM] (Fwd) Re: [SWC] Outline-driven group writing </A><A NAME="65361"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="065362.html">[EM] Messages of Single-Winner Committee available </A><A NAME="65362"> </A> Steve Eppley
• <A HREF="065364.html">[EM] Hitler-Stalin-Middle Example Again </A><A NAME="65364"> </A> DEMOREP1 at aol.com

Later history

During its first few years, "election-methods" it was on "eskimo.com", and was originally a "Majordomo" list. In 2003, the list moved to the newly-formed Electorama.com website on Dreamhost, and transitioned to becoming a GNU Mailman-based mailing list. EM-list remains hosted on Dreamhost, but the old "Electowiki" wiki, hosted on Dreamhost was copied the Miraheze infrastructure in 2018 and rebranded "electowiki" (with a lowercase "e"). The old "Electowiki" wiki is still running to serve up history of articles written prior to 2018.

Future

Who know?