When I speak to my American friends and relatives about electoral reform, people do not seem to understand the full impact of disproportional voting systems.

Aside from the election sorting all of those independents and non-voters into their least-bad-choice, it also has a distorting effect on advertising, campaign finance and the media.

I am pleased to hear that Gary Johnson is at least one US politician for whom this is a priority: Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Laurence Lessig all seemed to step back from the logical conclusion of their campaign finance reforms.

But of course, in a first past the post election though I can imagine people will be voting tactically away from both Trump and Hillary, I cannot imagine the Libertarians being in a position to enact electoral reform.

The fight for a more perfect democracy on both sides of the Atlantic is going to be a longer battle, fought as much through pressure groups as elections. Therefore, I am surprised that you did not mention Fair Vote, which is dedicated to promoting reform from all sides of the political spectrum.

Finally, I would like to point out the complete and happy coincidence that earlier today I published an article which goes into detail on how America’s electoral system is distorting the nature of its politics; making it more partisan, more polarised, and more in hoc to the special interests that finance both sides of the aisle. My article can be read here.

Best of luck to yourself and Gary Johnson. I hope that this becomes a part of the American debate soon.